Self-Concept and Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Physics

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of self concepton physics students’ academic achievement in secondary schools. The studywas conducted in Uyo LGA of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria. A sample size offive hundred (500) senior secondary two physics students took part in theinvestigation. Two researcher made instruments, Self-concept Questionnaire(SQ) and Physics Achievement Test (PAT) were used in generating the datafor the study. The reliability of the instruments determined using CronbachAlpha were 0.77 for SQ and 0.72 for PAT. Two hypotheses were proposed toguide the investigation and the data that accrued from the study wereanalysed using independent t-test. The major findings of the study showedthat students with high self-concept achieved academically higher than thosewith low self-concept. Gender showed no significant difference in academicachievement of physics students with high self-concept. It was thereforerecommended that curriculum designers and implementation agents shouldconsider self-concept as a variable that enhances secondary students’academic achievement.