The Effect of Motivation on Pupils’ Academic Performance in Primary School Pupils

The Effect of Motivation on Pupils’ Academic Performance in Primary School Pupils

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of the Study

Societies all over the world have used education as an instrument for the achievement of their national interests and objectives. Education is an instrument par excellence for effective national development. It fosters the worth and development of the individual, for the individuals sake and for the general development of the society (National Policy on Education, 2004). All these call for functional education for the promotion of a progressive and united country. Therefore, school programs need to be relevant, practical and comprehensive, while interest and ability should determine the individual direction in education. It is only when these 2 factors come together that we can achieve the nations objectives.

In Nigeria, for example, in order to achieve the goals and objectives of education, the government set up 3 levels of education: primary education, secondary education and tertiary education (National Potlicy on Education, 2004).

Primary education is the first level of education in Nigeria. According to National Policy on Education (2004), primary education is the education children receive after nursery education and before the secondary stage. The goals of primary education are to prepare the individual for:

• Useful living within the society.
• Higher education.

Motivation plays a major role in pupils’ academic work and in their achievement. It reflects in pupils’ choices of learning tasks, in the time and effort they devote to them, in their persistence on learning tasks, in their coping with the obstacles they encounter in the learning process. Okoye, (2005) noted that because of poor motivation due to inadequate remuneration, poor teaching environment as a result of lack of basic teaching materials, listless and unmotivated learners in the classroom, among others, the teachers have become the endangered species in their own profession. They no long teach and the pupils in turn no longer learn. He suggested that pupils should be academically motivated as this will go a long way to solving most of the problems faced in education system and also increase pupils academic performance.

He further remarked that motivating pupils will help them to be more responsible and have more interest in studies. He also holds that motivation of pupils will reduce, if not completely eliminate, high school dropout rates, low enrolment rates, truancy, etc. In the view of Wentzel, (2008), every educator needs to be concerned about motivation. It is a quality that pupils, teachers, parents, school administrators and other members of the community must have if our educational system is to prepare young people adequately for the challenges and demands of the coming century.

Of course, the way these various groups of individuals generate and use motivation differs greatly. Pupils need motivation to learn, parents need it to track the educational progress of their sons and daughters, teachers need it to become better teachers and school administrators need it to ensure that every facet of the schools they manage continues to improve.

It is against backdrop that this study is carried out to determine whether motivation influence pupils’ academic performance in primary schools in IkotEkpene Local Government Area.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

Motivation guide people‘s actions and behaviours toward achievement of some goals Gesinde, (2000). In work and other contexts therefore, motivation is often described as being ―intrinsic‖ or ―extrinsic‖ in nature (Clallahan, & Clark 2000). Intrinsic motivation, deriving from within the person or from the activity itself, positively affects behavior, performance, and well being. Extrinsic motivation on the other hand, results from the attainment of externally administered rewards, including pay, material possessions, prestige, and positive evaluations among others.

Therefore, this study would direct attention to whether intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation influence academic performance of pupils in primary schools.

1.3    Purpose of the Study

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of motivation on pupils’ academic performance of primary school pupils in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area. Specifically, the study would achieve the following objectives:

1. Find out whether motivation has any significant effect on pupils academic performance in primary schools in IkotEkpene Local Government Area.
2. Find out whether intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation perform differently in primary schools pupils in IkotEkpene Local Government Area.
3. Find out whether teachers’ motivation has any significant effect on the pupils’ performance in primary schools in IkotEkpene Local Government Area.

1.4    Significance of the Study

          This study will be of benefit to teachers, parents, government and stakeholder in the education business.

1. To the teacher, this study will enable them to be motivated in teaching the pupils and also enable their pupils to be motivated themselves.
2. To the parents, this study will open their eyes and cause them to send their children or wards to a well equipped schools as this is where sound education can be acquired.
3. To the government, the study will create awareness on the need to provide motivated facilities since no sound learning and teaching can take place without teachers and pupils’ motivation.
4. To the stakeholders, this study will cause them to partner with government in the provision of motivation in schools in their area since government alone cannot do that.

1.5    Hypotheses of the Study

          The following hypotheses were formulated to guide this study:

1. There is no significant influence in the academic performance of pupils’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in primary schools.
2. There is no significant influence in the academic performance of teachers’ motivation in primary schools.

1.6    Limitation of the Study

          The limitation of this study include the following:

1. The researcher was also confronted with lack of adequate empirical studies to give this work the requires forces
2. The time given for the computation of this study was inadequate to make a research like this have a wide scope.
3. The researcher was confronted with lack of enough financial resource to help expand the study to cover the entire state.

The Effect of Motivation on Pupils’ Academic Performance in Primary School Pupils

1.7    Delimitation

This research work is delimited to motivation and academic performance of pupils in primary schools in IkotEkpene Local Government Area of AkwaIbom State.

1.8    Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined as they are used in the study:

1. Motivation:According to Okumbe (1998) motivation is defined as a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that activates behaviour or a drive that is arrived at a goal or incentive. According to Balunywa (2003), motivation is the inducement of a desired behavior with in subordinates. It is the inducement of a desired behaviour within subordinates. Hornby (2000) on the other hand defines motivation as an incentive to act or move. Webster‘s dictionary (2002) defines the concept motivation as the act or process of moving or drive, or an incentive. In this study, the variable motivation involved both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.
2. Academic performance of pupils:This is the result of pupils in primary schools due to the teaching and learning.
3. Intrinsic motivation: deriving from within the person or from the activity itself, positively affects behavior, performance, and well being.
4. Extrinsic motivation: results from the attainment of externally administered rewards, including pay, material possessions, prestige, and positive evaluations among others.
5. Pupils:usually young children in primary school who is learning under the close supervision of a teacher at school, a private tutor, or the like; pupil.
6. Stakeholders:groups or organizations that has interest or concern in education or schools. Theycan affect or be affected by the schools’actions, objectives and policies.

CHAPTER FIVE

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1    Summary

This study was conducted at IkotEkpene Local Government Area to investigate motivation and pupils’ academic performance in primary schools. To achieve these objectives, two null hypotheses were formulated and tested as a basis for the study and these were:

1. There is no significant influence in the academic performance of pupils’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in primary schools.
2. There is no significant influence in the academic performance of teachers’ motivation in primary schools.

Literature related to this topic was reviewed; the review was made under the general survey of school contemporary problems and prospects, the role of motivation in pupils academic performance in primary schools, teachers’ motivation conceptualization, improving pupil motivation and academic performance in primary schools and factor influencing pupil motivation and academic performance in primary schools

 The research instrument used for the study was an achievement test question which was prepared by the researcher. The population of the study was all the pupils and teachers in six (6) selected primary schools in IkotEkpene local Government Area of AkwaIbom State out of one hundred and twenty (120) students were sampled for the study. The random sample technique was therefore adopted to draw representatives of 120 pupils. Twenty (20) pupils were randomly selected from each of the six (6) primary schools, thus making a total sample size of 120. The random sampling method was used on selecting the students for the study.

The study therefore concluded that motivation influence academic performance of pupils in Primary schools.

5.2    Conclusion

The research findings of this study on the motivation and the pupils’ academic performance in primary schools in IkotEkpene Local Government Area of AkwaIbom state indicating that there is significance influence in the academic performance of pupils’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in primary schools also there is significant influence in the academic performance of teachers’ motivation in primary schools. From the findings I can rightly concluded that:

Intrinsic motivation enhances academic performance of pupils in primary schools because high intrinsic motivation has resulted in direct positive relationship towards pupil preparedness before exam and coping with the stress as well. Besides that, when intrinsic goal being prioritized by pupils, they were more likely to put a lot of effort and show persistence when acquiring detail information about the given task which eventually leads to better academic performance. Pupil with extrinsic goals in other hand does not generate similar results with those with intrinsic motivation.

5.3    Recommendations

The following recommendations were made about the study:

1. Motivation of teachers’ should be considered as a major driving force by those in charge of implementation of educational policies so as to bring about needed performances on the part of students.
2. For effective motivation of teachers, teachers’ salary and other remuneration should be paid adequately and promptly.
3. Training of teachers annually to further boost their performances in school should be given an urgent attention as stipulated in National policy of Education.
4. The government or other employer of labour should ensure that the employees are well paid and on time for the employees to satisfy their basic and pressing needs in life; and work hard to ensure high job performance.
5. The government and other employers of labour should give attention to the motivational incentives of the workers. The employers of labour should note that the allowances, fringe benefits, promotions, merit awards and in-service trainings are very crucial incentives which poke the workers to work hard. Hence, a reduction or non-payment of the incentives can cause a serious damage to the organization and low level of job performance.

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5.4    Suggestions for Further Study

The researcher was unable to cover a wider area and other aspect of school administration teaching style and methodology in her investigations. As a result further research should focus on the following study areas:

1. Teachers students relations and academic performance of pupils in primary schools
2. The influence of quality of schools on academic performance of pupils.
3. Effective supervision of schools and academic performance.