Psychological Determinants of Academic Achievement among Thai Students in Selected International Schools in Thailand

Abstract

This paper investigated the determinants of academic achievement among Thai students in international schools in Thailand. The research focused on exploring the relationship between scores on the self-efficacy scales and the five sub-scales of the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R) (McCoach 2000). The purpose of the study was to examine whether students' attitudes toward school, teacher, classroom, goal-valuation, academic self-perception, motivation and self-regulation and self-efficacy are determinants of their academic achievement. The research also studied existing literature on determinants of academic achievement. An additional goal of the study was to attempt to predict the academic achievement among the students by using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.The sample contained 218 female and 145 male students of middle school from three different international schools in Bangkok, Thailand. The mean of students' self-perception, motivation and self-regulation, attitude toward teacher, classroom and their demographic variable were all statistically significant (p>0.001). The self-efficacy, goal valuation, attitude toward school factor was not statistically significant (p>0.01).By using Description Statistical Analysis method, it was appropriately classified that 90% of the samples are academically high achievers. The study represented an essential step toward quantifying factors related to the academic achievement of Thai students in International schools.