Factors That Impact on Grade Nine Academic Achievement in Mathematics at Kikombe Day Secondary School

Abstract

This study was done to find out the factors which impact grade nine learners’ academic achievement. It was conducted at Kikombe Day Secondary School, located in Solwezi of the North-Western province of Zambia. The target population for the study was the entire grade nine learner population of the school. The school had a population of about 300 grade nine learners. From this population, a sample of 150 learners was drawn for the study. A systematic simple random sampling technique was used in drawing the sample. The choice of the sampling technique was because the researcher had access to a complete list of all grade nine learners at the school. The data was collected from the drawn sample using a questionnaire which consisted of two sections namely five-point Likert scale and open-ended. The other open-ended questionnaire for teachers was also prepared and an achievement test for learners. To test the validity and reliability of the instruments, a pilot study was first conducted and had its results analysed. The appropriate changes were made to the instruments before the main study was conducted. A sample of 50 participants was drawn from the target population for the pilot study. The main study was then done by using the corrected instruments. The data which was collected was analysed with the help of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The analysis process included ‘factor analysis’ and ‘Cronbach’s alpha tests’ for verifying validity and reliability respectively. The other technique used in data analysis was linear regression analysis which was used for determining which of the factors were responsible for the learners’ academic achievement. Following the literature reviewed, the researcher had hypothesised five different factors as being responsible for learners’ academic achievement at Kikombe Day Secondary Keywords: Academic achievement, learner, teacher, family, learning material and motivation DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-7-05 Publication date: March 31 st 2022