MST-Department of Educational Psychology

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Browsing MST-Department of Educational Psychology by Subject "Academic achievement//Achievements test"

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    Influence of some selected personality variables on academic achievement of high school students in Kakamega district, Kenya
    (2012-02-07) Wawire, Koinange Chrispus
    The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of some selected personality variables: introversion/extraversion, birth order and gender, on academic achievement of high school students in Kenya. Specifically this study looked at the difference between introverts and extraverts in academic achievement. It also investigated the difference in academic achievement between first boms, middle borns and last borns and lastly gender difference in academic achievement was also explored. The study used both the correlational and ex-post facto designs. The participants were given questionnaires (EPQ, to categorize respondents as either introverts or extraverts; and respondents' questionnaire to elicit information on ordinal position. The independent variables in this study were: extraversion- introversion, ordinal position and gender. The dependent variable was academic achievement. The participants in the study were 78 boys and 92 girls. The findings of the study show that: - a) The mean academic performance of introverts is higher and significant than the mean academic performance of extraverts. b) There is a strong and positive relationship between ordinal position and academic achievement. There is a decreasing achievement with subsequent siblings, last-borns being on the defit end. c) There is a significant difference in student's academic performance due to gender. Male gender outshine their female counterparts From the findings of the study it was established that greater socialibility of extraverts appears to disrupt their studies whereas good study habits like self-discipline, consistency and perseverance that are related to introversion tend to present important factors needed in academic success at high school. The study also revealed first borns as higher performers. This could be because of first born's earlier exposure to a mature environment, higher expectations set by parents and the benefit that accrue to them as teachers of later siblings and finally a higher score reported for boys could be because girls are motivated to fail because to them higher performance is equated to loss of femininity by socialising agents. This study is important in relation to individual differences among students and the need for identifying this by those concerned with education of the young. It is in line with these understandings that recommendations were made for parents, teachers, policy makers, teacher trainers and researchers.