STUDENTS ACADEMIC BACKGROUND AS PREDICTOR OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN SCIENCE EDUCATION COURSES IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION

STUDENTS ACADEMIC BACKGROUND AS PREDICTOR OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN SCIENCE EDUCATION COURSES IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

  Background to the Study

 

Academic performance has been a major area of concern to many educationists, educational administrators, curriculum planners, psychologists and school guidance counselors. Academic performance is related to achievement than any other teachers‟ behaviours. Academic achievement is more likely to occur when students are provided accelerated experiences which are challenging and rigorous when students are given opportunities to interact with intellectual peers as well as their chronological age peers and It is measured by the examination result which is one of the major goals of a school. Schools are established with the aim of imparting knowledge and skills to those who go through them and behind all this is the idea of enhancing good academic performance.

Education is an essential need of the society; as such academic performance is positioned very high on the national agenda, with educators and policy makers putting effort in testing, accountability and other related concerns. The United Nations Report (2001) as cited by Mullis, Martin, Foy and Drucker (2012), highlighted education as a basic right and need which was vital towards achieving the second goal of the old Millennium Development Goals and equally important to the current Sustainable Development Goals, because good education (academic performance) guarantees skilled and dynamic citizens.

Several factors may affect students‟ academic performance among them is home background which has to do with “family type, parents‟ educational background” and

 

parent‟ involvement to school which has been of great importance in shaping the performance of children in schools worldwide. This is because; academic performance is usually as a result of motivation the children get from the people they interact with in their initial stages of life. Family types are recognized as the formal way of living. The two main family types used in this study are monogamous and polygamous children from either of these family background are believed to differ in their academic performance as a result of different conditions they experience which could be an indicator for high or low academic performance (Mirazchiyski, 2013). The social interaction as well as environmental condition that exist in a family is known by scholars to have positive and negative effect on the academic performance of a child. The emotional stability of students from either of these families is a precondition to their academic performance. Sometimes children from educated parents have more advantage as they receive more stimulation at home thereby enhancing their academic performance.

Parents‟ high aspirations have additional benefit and motivation. Direct experience by learners is one of the most important determinants of academic performance as children from educated parent have the chance of having access to audio visual materials. However, children from uneducated parents have the advantage of perceiving what it means to be with lower educational background as such it makes them develop more interest on their studies which will help to improve their academic performance. Moreover, parents with lower educational background try as much as possible to provide their children with the necessarily resources needed in school to motivate them on the importance of education in order not to end up being like them and also change their social class (Omoregbe, 2012).

 

Parental support, may be defined as the availability of emotional resources and approval that a parent provides to his or her child, which has been found to be an influential factor in the overall well being of children A child, brought up with affection and care in the least restrictive environment would be able to cope up better with the sighted world. Therefore, the family shapes the social integration of the child more than a formal school. One of the most important attributes of parent involvement is consistency. As children mature into adolescence, family support in their learning remains important. Family Parents/guardians need to influence their children by increasing familiarity in the school subject, taking interest in their school work, enroll them for extra lessons, ensuring that home work is done, acquire film and other electronic materials that can stimulate their interest in school based careers and enable the children to develop friendly attitude to the school subject Oundo, Poipoi, and Were (2014). These experiences are effective in removing hostility towards schoolwork. The effectiveness, with which parents are able to motivate their children to learn in school by way of enhancing their home and school learning environments, may be function of their family type and educational background.

The extent and effectiveness of parental support depends on a variety of reasons, such as, ethnicity, family type and home environment and their awareness about the importance of education. Mainly, family has responsibility to socialize children for making them productive members of the society. The more the parents involve in the process of imparting education to their children, the better the children might excel in their academic career and to become the productive and responsible members of the society. It has been assumed that academic performance of students may not only depend on the quality of schools and the teachers, but also the extent of student’s educational background, family type and parental support has vital role to play in academic performance of students  .

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