CORRELATES OF LOCUS OF CONTROL AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA.

Abstract

Young people are considered as the cogwheels of development in any society. Therefore, educators and parents wish that students, who will ultimately be the future leaders and professionals, prosper academically. Nationally there has been a decline in academic achievement in secondary schools as indicated by the available statistics and Nairobi City County has not been left behind. Research indicates that attitude is considered as an important determinant of student’s achievement in an education setting. It is therefore necessary that learning institutions establish and clarify the cause of good academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if factors such as age, gender, and type of school (which determine locus of control and attitude) have an impact on academic achievement in Nairobi County Secondary School. The study's main objectives were to determine the relationship between locus of control and attitude toward academic achievement, to determine whether age variation has an impact on the relationship between locus of control and attitude toward academic achievement, to look for any gender differences in the relationship between locus of control and attitude toward academic achievement, and, finally, to determine whether the type of school has an impact on the relationship among locus of control and mindset toward academic ability. The study was founded on Rotter's (1954) social learning theory and Katz's (1960) functionalist theory. The research design used in the study was correlational. The target population consisted of 6460 form three secondary school students from Nairobi City County. Boys boarding, girls boarding, and mixed day schools were separated into three strata using stratified random sampling. Seven public institutions, including two mixed-gender day schools and two boarding schools for boys and three for girls, were chosen using simple random selection. Following proportional allocation, a simple random selection was utilized to choose 385 pupils from form three (208 boys and 167 girls). The academic attitude scale and Rotter's locus of control scale (internal vs. external, or I-E) were the study tools used. After being piloted, the tools were used to determine their applicability. 32 students who were not a part of the study's main subjects were used to test the research tools. To assess reliability, the Cronbach alpha coefficient (𝛼) was computed to test for reliability. Both descriptive (percentages and mean) and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data (KruskalWallis one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation). The findings showed that there was a linear relationship between locus of control scale score and attitude towards academic achievement scale scores of public secondary school students from Nairobi County was very weak(0.00196) though not significant at the 0.05 level of significance; that age negatively correlates with both attitude and locus of control scores, but these relationships were very weak(-0.099, -0.021) and not significant at 0.05 level of significant, that there were gender differences across attitude and locus of control scale scores, hence the null hypothesis was rejected at 0.05 level of significant and that there were significant differences across school type in relation to locus of control and attitude scale scores, thus the null hypothesis was rejected at 0.05 level of significance. Policy recommendations were made to students, Teachers, school counselors and policy markers in regard to creation of awareness and sensitizations on the relationship between locus of control and attitude towards academic achievement in learners. Further research was recommended in relation to inclusion of other variables such as culture, social economic status so that it is clear whether disparity in these variables affect the locus of control and attitudes towards academic achievement in learners.