Students' motivation and academic achievement in basic science in Rivers state, Nigeria

Abstract

The importance of affective domain in acquisition of scientific knowledge cannot be overemphasized. Hence, the study investigated students' motivation and academic achievement in Basic Science. Quasi experimental research design was adopted for the study and purposive sampling technique was used to select Emohua Local Government Area. Stratified random sampling on basis of school location (urban and rural) was used to select two UBE schools. While simple random sampling by balloting was used to select one hundred (100) JSS2 Basic Science students that participated in the study. Basic Science Achievement Test (BSAT) was used to collect data for the study and the data collected were analyzed by using mean and standard deviation to answer all the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at.05 level of significance. The study found that, students' motivation have significant effect on their achievement mean scores in Basic Science P<.05. Gender does not have significant effect on achievement mean scores of motivated students in Basic Science, P >.05. School locations have significant effect on mean scores of motivated students in Basic science P <.05. The urban motivated students did better than the rural students. Hence, this study recommends that students should often be motivated in order for them to achieve maximally in acquiring Basic Science skills and knowledge. Rural schools should also be well equipped to boast the achievement of students in Basic Science.