LOCUS OF CONTROL AS CORRELATE OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DEFICITS IN MATHEMATICS IN NORTH-CENTRAL, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated locus of control as correlate of academic performance of students with learning deficits in mathematics in North Central, Nigeria. Correlation research design was adopted. This is a type of survey research design that attempts to analyze the mutual interaction/association or interdependence/relationship between two or more variables. The target population for this studyconsisted of 235,271 SS 2 students from 2,114 public senior secondary schools in North Central, Nigeria. The states in North Central Nigeria are Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and Plateau States, plus the Federal Capital Territory. The sample size of 1590 students were selected to participate in this study using the Krejic and Morgan (1970) standard table for determining samples from a given population. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used for the study. Stage one; Purposive sampling technique to select three (3) states, which are Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau from the already existing six (6) states and the Federal Capital Territory in North Central Nigeria. Stage two; Simple random sampling technique was used to select two (2) Local Government Areas (LGA’s) from each Senatorial zone in the sampled states. In all, 53 schools out of 2,114 schools were selected for the study. In order to eliminate bias, simple random sampling technique (balloting without replacement) was used to select 30 SS 2 students from each of the sampled schools. An instrument (Rotter’s LOCS) was adopted by the researcher and was used to elicit information for the study. The researcher will administer the instrument to the students and the “wait-and-take” technique was used to retrieve the questionnaires from the respondents for the purpose of data analysis. Descriptive statistics (frequency counts, mean and standard deviation) was used to describe the demographic characteristics of the respondents and to answer the research questions, while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was also used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there was a significant relationship between internal locus of control and anegative relationship between external locus of control and the students’ mathematics performance in senior secondary schools in north central Nigeria. The study concluded that, locus of control is vital in the academic development of students.