IMPACT OF GENDER ORIENTATION ON ACHIEVEMENT BEHAVIOUR, ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT AND SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT OF IN-SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the impact of gender orientation on achievement behaviour, academic self-concept and school achievement of in-school adolescents. Nine research questions and nine hypotheses guided the study. The design of the study was causal comparative ex-post facto design. The target population was 22,296 in-school adolescents, comprising 11,198 JSSII and 11,098 SSII in-school adolescents in Obollo-Afor and Nsukka Education Zones of Enugu State, Nigeria.  The sample for this study consisted of 816 masculine and feminine (determined from their scores on the Gender Orientation Scale-GOS) in-school adolescents randomly drawn through random sampling from 12 public secondary schools in Obollo Afor and Nsukka Education Zones in Enugu State, Nigeria. Three instruments namely: Gender Orientation Scale, Achievement Behaviour Questionnaire and Academic Self-Concept Scale were developed, validated and used for the study. The internal consistency reliability co-efficient of the instruments obtained through Cronbach alpha method were 0.87, 0.96, and 0.76 for Gender Orientation Scale, Achievement Behaviour Questionnaire and Academic Self-Concept Scale respectively. The instruments were administered to the respondents through direct delivery, by the researcher and 3 research assistants.  Mean and Standard Deviation scores were used to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 probability level using Analysis of Variance Statistic. Results showed that gender orientation significantly impacts on the achievement behaviour, academic self-concepts and school achievements of in-school adolescents. There were no significant interactions of gender orientation and school location on achievement behaviour, academic self-concept and school achievement of in-school adolescents. It was concluded that gender orientation significantly impacts on the achievement behaviour, academic self-concept and school achievement of in-school adolescents. Therefore, gender orientation is a critical factor that shape the level of achievement, aspiration and goals attained by in-school adolescents. Among the educational implications is included that gender orientation is a major determining factor in the learning process, the in-school adolescents would aspire higher and achieve their full potentials if their gender orientation is definitive. Based on the findings it was recommended that the school authorities, teachers and stakeholders in the education sector should help in increasing the campaign of gender sensitivity in the contemporary learning environments. By so doing, instructional designers and textbook writers might adopt gender sensitive illustrations in pictorial representations in the learning materials to minimize gender stereotyping in learning environments.

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