GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

The purpose of the study is to investigate study habit as correlates of upper basic student’s achievement and attitude in basic science and technology in Akwa-Ibom state. In other to carry out the study two research questions and hypotheses were formulated. The correlation survey design was used in this study. The area that was covered in this study is Akwa-Ibom State. The population of this study comprised of 20,655 Upper Basic 3 Basic Science students in 237 public secondary schools in the 31 local government area of Akwa-Ibom State in 2022/2023 academic session. The sample size for this study was 1800 Upper Basic three (3) Basic Science and Technology students from 45 public secondary schools in Akwa-Ibom State. Three types of sampling methods namely - purposive, proportionate and simple random samplings were used. Purposive sampling was used to select nine Local Government Areas from the state. Proportionate random sampling was used to draw 5 schools from each Local Government Area giving 45 schools from the state. This is because the populations of schools in the selected areas were not similar. Simple random sampling technique of 40 students per school was further used to select the students who participated in the Study. Two instruments were used to collect data for this Study. They are Study Habit Scale Questionnaire (SHSQ) and Students’ Attitude Scale Questionnaire (SASQ). The study habit questionnaire as well as the attitude scale questionnaire consisted of 25 statements each which sort information on student’s study habit and attitude. A four-point rating Scale of SA - strongly agree, A – agree, D - disagree, SD - strongly disagree was used in designing the questionnaire. To ensure the validity, the instruments were given to three experts and two professional teachers. The three experts were from faculty of Education while the two professional teachers were Basic Science and Technology teachers not below the Rank of Principal II in the Area of the study. To determine the reliability of the instruments, SHSQ and SASQ were administered once to eighty Upper Basic three school students who were not part of the study. The scores obtained were subjected to reliability computation using Cronbach’s Alpha Technique. SHSQ has a reliability coefficient of .78, and reliability of SASQ was established at .77, thus the instruments were adjudged to be suitable for the study. The instruments were administered on the students by the researcher with the help of Nine (9) research assistants who were briefed by the researcher to facilitate easy administration of the instruments. These nine research assistants were used to cover the entire local government areas that formed the sample. Three research assistant covered fifteen schools each and three weeks was used in administering the instruments. Each instrument took the respondent’s about 40 minutes for its completion; all the instruments were administered and retrieved same day by the research assistant. Also Basic Science and Technology achievement records of the participants were obtained from school’s terminal examination records. This was used as a measure of students’ academic achievement. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient as well as regression statistics was used to analyze the data generated from the study. The result revealed that there is a low negative significant relationship between study habit and upper basic school student’s academic achievement and attitude in Basic Science and Technology in Akwa- Ibom State. Based on the finding of this study it is recommended among others that teachers should be made to organize a workshop to improve student’s study habit in Basic Science and Technology. This will go a long way to accelerate student’s academic achievement in the subject.

KEYWORD: Study Habit, Upper Basic Student’s Achievement, Attitude, Basic Science and Technology and Akwa-Ibom State