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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.7, No.6
Publication Date: June 25, 2020
DOI:10.14738/assrj.76.8430.
Filade, B. A., Omozokpia, D. O., Uwannah, N., Amanze, S., Ajibola, I. E., & Omotosho, T. (2020). The Influence Of Students’ Attitude
Towards Economics As A Course Of Study On Academic Performance In University Of Lagos, Lagos State. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 7(6) 528-540.
The Influence Of Students’ Attitude Towards Economics As A Course
Of Study On Academic Performance In University Of Lagos, Lagos
State
Filade, Bankole Adeyemi
Department of Education
Babcock University
Omozokpia, Davidson Osagie
Department of Education
Babcock University
Uwannah, Ngozi (PhD)
Department of Education
Babcock University
Amanze, Samuel (PhD)
Department of Education
Babcock University
Ajibola, Iyadunni Esther
Student Support Center
Babcock University
Omotosho, Tominiyi
Student Support Center
Babcock University
ABSTRACT
The decline in students’ academic performance in Economics as a course
of study in the last decade is worrisome. This study therefore seeks to
investigate influence of students’ attitude towards Economics as a
course of study on academic performance in the University of Lagos. The
study adopted descriptive survey research design and made use of a
sample of One hundred and twenty (120) undergraduate students
randomly selected from Economics Education cohort, Faculty of
Education, University of Lagos, Akoka. A self-developed questionnaire
of 34 items was used to collect information from the students after its
validity and reliability (r=0.68) were determined with the use of split
half method. The data collected were analysed using Mean, Standard
Deviation, and Simple Percentage while Chi-square, independent t-test
and One-way Anova statistical tools were used to analyse three
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.7, Issue 6, June-2020
hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance using (SPSS) testing program.
The study revealed that there is significance influence of students’
attitude towards economics as a course on academic performance. Both
male and female students have almost the same attitude towards
economics as a course. Also, the attitude of students towards economics
as a course is the same at different academic levels. In the light of the
study`s results, the researchers presented a number of
recommendations and proposals the most important of which are:
Ministry of education should organize orientation programmes against
wrong attitude of undergraduate students towards economics as a
course in order to improve their motivation and academic performance.
Since gender does not affect the attitude of students towards economics
as a course, teaching and learning of economics as a course should be
done freely among the students of different sexes. Seminars and
symposiums should be organized by university management for
Economics department, Faculty of Education about the prospects of the
course to motivate them towards academic excellence.
Keywords: Student’s Attitude, Economics, Academic Performance.
INTRODUCTION
Student beliefs and attitudes have the potential to either facilitate or inhibit learning (Yara, 2009).
Many factors could contribute to student’s attitude toward studying science and social sciences
(Economics). Several studies (including Wilson 1983; Soyibo, 1985; Berg 2005; Adesoji, 2008)
report that students’ positive attitudes to science correlate highly that in general, the attitude of
Nigeria students towards the basic sciences and social sciences tend to decrease in the order,
Biology, Economics, Physics and Mathematics. Defiane (1995).
Halladyna and Shanghnessy (1982) and Adesoji (2008) identified a number of factors relating to
students attitude to science and social sciences (Economics) such as; teaching methods, teacher
attitude, influence of parents, gender, age, cognitive styles of pupils, career interest, social view of
science, social implications of science (Economics) and achievement. The studies suggest that there
is a relationship between attitude and methods of instruction and also between attitude and
achievement; and that it is possible to predict achievement from attitude scores.
Attitude is a tendency which is attributed to individuals and creates ideas, feelings and behaviours
about a psychological object in an orderly manner (Çetin, 2006). According to Oncul (2000) cited in
Kara (2010), attitudes which cause individuals to always behave in the same way to people, objects,
events and foundations are constant and unchangeable beliefs, feelings and tendencies. While the
positive attitudes serve a better comprehension of the nature of learning for the learners, it also
makes the students more open to learning, increases their expectations from learning process and
reduces their anxiety levels. For instance, students having positive attitudes towards reading take
more advantage of the advance organizers. Achievements of the students developing negative
attitudes go down (Güngör & Açıkgöz, 2006). The desire of learning interpenetrates people.
However, it is important that the intrinsic motivators of the learner, such as the learners’ sense of
wonder, high expectations, desire of sufficiency, support this process (AçıkgözÜn, 2007). It is
necessary to be eager and in need of learning in this process.
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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.76.8430 530
Filade, B. A., Omozokpia, D. O., Uwannah, N., Amanze, S., Ajibola, I. E., & Omotosho, T. (2020). The Influence Of Students’ Attitude Towards Economics As A
Course Of Study On Academic Performance In University Of Lagos, Lagos State. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(6) 528-540.
According to Keeves (1992), attitudes towards science and social sciences, economics inclusive are,
in general, highly favoured, indicating strong support for science and the learning of science. There
is also consistency across countries and age levels within a country in the average level of attitude
towards economics and general science. However, in countries where a high level of technological
and industrial development had been achieved, the findings showed that attitude towards science
were more neutral. Generally, boys held more favourable attitude towards science, the findings
concluded. Kempa and Dude (1974) reported that pupils’ interest in science is associated with their
achievement in science. Collaborating these reports, Olatoye (2001) found that students attitude
towards economics have significant direct effect on student achievement in the subject. Adesokan
(2000) asserted that in spite of the recognition given to economics among the science subjects, it is
evident that student still show negative attitudes towards the subject there by leading to poor
teaching performance and low enrolment.
Aire & Oke (2001) says that emotional problems are difficulties associated with inability of a child
to maintain psychological equilibrium when in academic environment. A student who cannot
concentrate due to emotional problems will not perform well academically. Ogunmakin (2001)
contributed that good study habits walk hand in hand with good academic performance. Therefore
student’s method of studying has been identified as major problem students are confronted with
today. He says students do not follow proper studying methods which include (SQ3R) Survey–
Question-Read-Recite-Review methodology, summarizing note-taking and self–questioning and
many more when having personal reading. Hussain (2000) agrees that lack of basic cognitive skills,
which include perception of good success reasoning faculty, creativity and many more are
responsible for poor study habits. Darwin (2011) says that drive, goals or needs of learner usually
prompt learner to action. He says an individual’s belief and ideologies have direct consequences on
thing that motivates such individual. A student who has goals will be motivated to study well which
will lead to academic success that is his or her dream.
Cardelle-Elawar & Nevin, (2003) described academic performance as the conscious and purposeful
use of one’s cognitive skills, feelings, and actions to maximize the learning of knowledge and skills
for a given task and set of conditions. Schunk (2004) viewed it as an individual’s ability to set goals,
evaluate his or her own performance, and adjust behaviours flexibly to achieve those goals in the
context of ongoing feedback. Successful students show a commitment to maximize learning from
educational experiences, monitor their progress, and make adjustments in their efforts when
necessary to accomplish their goals (Ainley, 2006; Ainley & Patrick, 2006; Miller & Brickman, 2004).
Many researchers have discussed the different factors that affects the student academic
performance in their research. There are two types of factors that affect the students’ academic
performance. These are internal and external classroom factors and these factors strongly affect the
students’ performance. Internal classroom factors includes students competence, class schedules,
class size, text books, class test results, learning facilities, homework, environment of the class,
complexity of the course material, teachers role in the class, technology used in the class and exams
systems. External classroom factors include extracurricular activities, family problems, work and
financial, social and other problems. Research studies shows that students’ performance depends
on many factors such as learning facilities, gender and age differences, etc. that can affect student
performance (Hansen & Joe, 2000). Harb and El-Shaarawi (2006) found that the most important
factor with positive effect on students' performance is student's competence. If the students have
strong positive attitude, it increases their performance.
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Travis, Charles & Susan (2015) argued academic achievement should be a direct result of attaining
learning objectives and acquiring desired skills and competencies. They posited that academic
achievement is a threshold assessment—it captures a student’s ability to meet performance criteria.
In this way, grades are intended to measure learning or knowledge; in other words, they are proxy
measurements intended to capture attainment of learning objectives and acquisition of skills and
competencies. They found it conceptually helpful to separate academic achievement from the
attainment of learning objectives and acquisition of skills and competencies because its nature as a
proxy and because it is almost always referenced in an aggregate form (grade in a course or GPA).
Choi (2005) described successful completion of course activities by students as ultimately
improving students’ academic achievement. While it is true in this instance Choi uses the term
‘success’ to refer to completion of course assignments and the term ‘academic achievement’ to
describe GPA, both terms refer to traditional measures of academic performance (i.e. grades and
GPA. Like Choi (2005), Parker et al. (2004) defined success as academic achievement (GPA). Travis,
Charles & Susan (2015) found that academic performance in the form of academic achievement,
accomplishment of learning objectives, and acquisition of skills and competencies were the most
frequently measured aspects of academic success. Moreover, they posited that academic
performance was measured most frequently of all. Academic achievement is almost entirely
measured with grades and GPA. This is unsurprising since grades and GPA measures are by far the
most readily available assessments for institutions. The accomplishment of learning objectives and
the acquisition of skills and competencies can be measured at the course, program, and institutional
level. GPA tops the list as most often used measurement of academic success accounting at 54.8%
making academic performance the most commonly assessed aspect of cognitive domain within the
empiric pieces reviewed by previous researchers like Travis, Charles & Susan (2015).
In the field of education and psychology, learning has been discovered all over the world to be a
highly complex problem. Over the years, researches on factors that influence academic performance
of students have attracted the interest of not only researcher but concerns of teachers (lecturers),
counsellors, psychologist and school administrators as well.
The term study habit refers to the way in which students’ study either systematically, efficiently or
inefficiently. In line with the above assertions, it can therefore be deduce that good study habit will
definitely yield positive academic performances and achievement and also inefficient or poor study
habit leads to academic failure.
In Nigeria many factors have been highlighted to influence the ability of students to cultivate
effective and efficient study habit. Such factors include; state of health, motivation, anxiety and state
of mind, conducive and suitable environment for studying, availability of textbooks and well- equipped libraries. In a research carried out by (Nuthana & Yenagi, 2009) the causes of poor
academic performance among Nigerian students were thoroughly examined. In which some of the
factors identified include; low student’s intellectual ability, achievement motivation, lack of goals,
low self-esteem, low socio-economic status of the family, poverty and poor study habit as a major
factor.
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Filade, B. A., Omozokpia, D. O., Uwannah, N., Amanze, S., Ajibola, I. E., & Omotosho, T. (2020). The Influence Of Students’ Attitude Towards Economics As A
Course Of Study On Academic Performance In University Of Lagos, Lagos State. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(6) 528-540.
Gender and Academic Performance
Gender involves the psychological and socio-cultural dimensions of being male or female (Ewumi,
2012). A gender role is a set of expectations that prescribes how females or males should think, act
and feel. Ewumi (2012) noted the importance of personality in terms of traits and contexts rather
than the personality traits alone. Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and
differentiating between, masculinity and femininity. Charles-Ogan (2014) posited that adolescents’
gender development is influenced by their observation and imitation of others gender behaviour,
as well as by rewards and punishments of gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate behaviour.
He stressed the fact that parents and siblings influence adolescents’ gender roles.
Charles-Ogan (2014) noted the results of students on study habit as a function of gender have been
very interesting and illuminating though findings have differed from one study to another. In the
study carried out by Morahan (1999) he found out that male and female tend to differ in the ways
in which they study. He found out that the male student took up courses that had logic and sciences
while female student were attracted to simpler courses. In a study on Age and gender difference on
study habit, Ossai (2012) found that female students are better in study habits such as time
scheduling, concentration, listing, note-taking and reading. Although trends in international
Mathematics and science study (TIMSS-2003) cited in Amatobi and Amatobi (2013) found no
significant difference in the performance of boys and girls in Mathematics achievement, they
however observed difference between boys and girls in terms of their attitude to the subject. Salami
(2013) studied the impact of biological gender on study habits, found that females are generally
shown to be more ethical such as frequency of attending lecturers and seeking academic assistance,
missing class tests and assignments duration of study, adherence to timetable and note-taking and
as such try to avoid negative consequences of behaviours such as cheating. In comparison to men,
women’s greater sense of duty and responsibility in the roles they occupy as study, daughter and
friend may lead to a better understanding of the expectations placed on them and as such have
better study habits than men (Salami, 2013). According to David, Ball and Reay (2003) studies on
gender issues in parental achievement in student choices higher Education found out that female
students’ relative to male students may develop and maintain closer relationship with their
teachers which allow them to learn the study habits. Experience has shown that female student
relative to male student tend to develop the courage to seek academic assistance and even
counselling from their teachers. This partly explains why cases of dropout and membership of
secret cults is higher among the male students in Nigerian schools (Charles-Ogan, 2014).
Empirical evidences abound that show the impact of gender on students’ academic performance.
Kolawole (2007), Afuwape & Oludipe (2008) found out that there are significant differences in the
cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills of students in respect of gender while other researchers
have provided reports that there are no longer distinguishing differences in the cognitive, affective
and psychomotor skill achievements of students in respect of gender (Arigbabu, A.A. & Mji,A. 2004;
Bilesanmi-Awoderu, J.B., 2006). McCoy (2005) posited that gender among other factors was found
to be significant contributors to student performance.
In 2011, Al-Mutairi examined the association of some factors such as gender with the student
performance. The study indicated that gender plays a significant role in determining students’
performance. In the same year Garkaz (2011) tested student gender in the Islamic Azad University
and reached the same conclusion which revealed that gender affects students’ academic
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performance and that female students have better academic performance than male students.
Sarwar and Sarwar (2012) investigated students’ performance in University of Punjab, Pakistan by
testing students’ gender as a parameter to determine the relationship between gender and students’
performance.
Many studies have shown that girls perform better in school than boys in all major subjects (Epstein
1998; Wong 2002) and that they graduate from high school with higher grade point averages (GPAs)
than their male peers (Perkins, Kleiner, Roey, & Brown, 2004). Chambers and Schreiber (2004)
study found that girls showed better performance than boys in certain instances.
In the teaching-learning process, both the teacher and the learners must be active. The learner
learns through some activities while the teacher does all he or she considers necessary to make
learning possible. For any society to be equipped with the basic knowledge and skills that will
enable it to better appreciate the nature of economic problems, and how to make rational economic
decisions, such a society must depend on the accumulated knowledge of economics, which the
citizens possess. For many years, educators and researchers have debated over which variables
influence student achievement. A growing body of evidence suggests that schools can make a great
difference in terms of student achievement and a substantial portion of that difference attributable
to teachers (Adu 2012).
Fennema & Frank (1992) agreed that teacher’s knowledge of the subject matter is an indicator of
teachers’ teaching effectiveness. Eggen & Kauchak in Adediwura & Tayo (2007) sub-divided
teachers’ knowledge of subject matter into categories: knowledge of content, pedagogical content
knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge. Ball & Bass (2000) had earlier explained that
knowledge of Mathematics and Economics itself (knowledge of subject matter) should go further
than the specific content of the discipline to the knowledge of how to teach, present mathematical
and economic concepts and that of selection and use of instructional media and resources. Muijs &
Reynolds (2002) posited that the teaching effectiveness of the teacher is hampered if he/she is not
well versed in the contents to be taught. A teacher who has a deep understanding of the concept to
be taught is more likely to use unambiguous language; their presentation is likely to be more
coherent and they would offer clearer explanation than those with a weaker background, (Uya,
2008). Adu (2012) in his finding on importance of Economics teachers’ knowledge of subject
contents, affirm that effective teaching that can lead to better achievement by the students and
provide a positive attitude. This depends on the teachers’ confidence and in-depth knowledge of the
subject matter.
The study of Economics enables a student to understand the nature of the complexity of the
economic activities in which he is only a very small part; It enables students to understand and
appreciate various government polices where choices have to be made such as probably to spend
more money on free education and therefore provide less employment opportunities; the study of
Economics provides the students with basic skills for analysing Economic problems thereby
preparing them better for positions where economic decisions have to be made; the study of
Economics helps a government to promote growth and development therefore improving the
quality of life of the citizens; knowledge of Economics is useful to analyse fascinating patterns of
socio-economic behaviour; the study of Economics is useful to understand and alter the inequalities
in the distribution of income and opportunities (Adu, 2012).
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Filade, B. A., Omozokpia, D. O., Uwannah, N., Amanze, S., Ajibola, I. E., & Omotosho, T. (2020). The Influence Of Students’ Attitude Towards Economics As A
Course Of Study On Academic Performance In University Of Lagos, Lagos State. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(6) 528-540.
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following null hypotheses will be tested in this study:
1. There is no significant influence of students’ attitude towards economics as a course on
academic performance.
2. There is no significant gender difference in students’ attitude towards economics as a course.
3. There is no significant difference in students’ attitude towards economics as a course on
academic levels.
METHODOLOGY
The total population for the study comprises of 44,602 undergraduate students in University of
Lagos, Akoka while the target population for the study comprise of all four hundred and eighty (480)
undergraduate students (male and female) in the Department of Economics, faculty of Education,
University of Lagos, Akoka. A sample of one hundred and twenty undergraduate students formed
the sample of this study. The random sampling technique was used for the study. This sampling was
suitable because it ensured homogeneity of the sample. One hundred and twenty (120)
undergraduate students, was selected from the faculty of Education, University of Lagos, Lagos
State, Nigeria.
The descriptive survey research design was used for this study. This design is relevant because it is
good in providing wide scope for obtaining information for the purpose of the study.
Instrumentation
A self- structured questionnaire was designed in two major sections. Section “A” deals with personal
information of the respondents on their age, gender, religion, while Section “B” contains twenty
items to elicit response from the respondent. Section B was divided into two sub-scales.
The response format for the instrument was a modified 4-point Likert attitudinal scale type of
Strongly agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD).
RESULTS
Hypothesis One
There is no significant influence of students’ attitude towards economics as a course on their
academic performance.
Relationship between students’ attitude towards economics as a course and their academic
performance.
Variables N df PӼ2 calӼ2tab Decision
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Students’ Attitude towards
Economics as a Course 102 63 0.05 750.27 79.1 H01: Rejected
Academic Performance
From table, the calculated Chi-Square value is 750.27and the tabulated value is 79.1 at 0.05
significant level with 63 degrees of freedom. Since, the calculated Chi-Square value of 750.27is
greater than tabulated value of 79.1, the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant
influence of students’ attitude towards economics as a course on their academic performance is