To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser. There is a glaring need for the Liberian government (Ministry of Education) and partners to undertake or fund systematic research projects (research commissions) to promote better understanding of Liberia’s education challenges and prospects. This part of the analyses was conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS), version 17.0. However, there were slight mean differences for both genders in other beliefs and strategies. Partner organizations like USAID, UNICEF, OSIWA, EU, Save the Children, and Plan International, among others, have also invested and continue to invest millions into different programs in the sector including teacher training and provision of teaching and learning materials. Despite educational inputs provided to date, the overall academic performance of Liberian students has not been impressive. Zimmerman believes that when students monitor their responding and attribute outcomes to their strategies, their learning becomes self-regulated, and they exhibit increased self-efficacy, greater intrinsic motivation, and higher academic achievement. On the contrary, this has not materialized. Emphasis must not only be placed on grades or rewards as the surest way to academic success, but it must also consider other skills and talents of students. (Zajacova, Lynch and Espenshade, 2005) AmitavaRaychaudhuri, et. The findings of this study, no doubt, provide salient insights into the motivation and strategy use of Liberian students as well as factors hindering their learning and their implications for better student learning outcomes. social development (Ali et.al, 2009). Students are worried about life challenges (poverty) and future uncertainties. This is, however, contingent on the sort of beliefs they hold. On this basis, one-way repeated-measures ANOVA was introduced, which confirmed that the strategy components differ significantly as [, ]. Through an analysis of 249 high school sophomore and junior boys and English language among secondary school students in Dutse metropolis of Jigawa state. It is assumed that this is because harassment in this study was treated generally, and it was not limited to sexual harassment, which could be experienced by male students as well. In compliance with Global Standards, Liberia Ministry of Education is working with its partners and relevant stakeholders to align the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, with the Ministry’s Getting to Best Strategies and Education Sector Plan. The perceived uncertainty about the future might also be a source of reported worries by participants. 14 Academic Performance of Senior Secondary School Students: Influence of Parental Encouragement and School Environment exerts a different influence on his performance through curricula, teaching techniques and relationship between teacher and student. To further deepen our understanding of Liberian junior and senior high school students apart from their motivational beliefs and learning strategy use, this study sought to generate students’ self-reports about factors hindering their learning. Only those working students are allowed to participate in the research.The researchers limit their study by giving questionnaire to the 50 working students of PUPSRC. Because when the motivation of students is detrimentally affected, it would have reciprocal effect on students and their learning outcomes. Finally, this research projected several factors deeply hampering students’ chances to do well in their academics. Somewhat surprisingly, females reported that nine out of 12 factors have serious negative impact on their learning. Students are supposedly capable of instigating, modifying, and sustaining information. Students are the most essential elements in any educationa­l institutio­n. In other words, it can be explained that their devotion to learning different subjects is because of their desires for rewards and fear of penalty from teachers and parents, and not based on their inner aspirations. The schools were selected in consideration with different characteristics of students enrolled. School … One of the most fascinating findings of this study reveals worrying about life challenges (poverty) and access to school (distance to and from school) as the most perilous factors confronting Liberian junior and senior high school students’ learning. Aside from indicator systems, descriptive analysis, and inferential techniques, skills/abilities tests are also prevalent in the basic education literature for measuring the academic performance of students. In order words, “motivation is what gets you going, keeps you going, and determines where you’re trying to go” [14, p-317]. Another factor for students reporting more extrinsic motivation could be as a result of high emphasis being placed on grades. (2)Teachers must be trained to integrate the essence of motivational beliefs and the need for students to use all kinds of strategies during instructions. The objectives of the study were to: establish the strategies being employed by public secondary schools to improve students‟ academic performance; determine the relationship between the academic performance For instance, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in 2010 awarded a US$40 million dollar grant to support Liberia in implementing its education sector plan [1]. O. BJECTIVES OF THE STUDY . Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was adapted and 12 potential learning hindrances were identified and used as instruments. Student evaluation must be meticulous and holistic. Specifically, we have been able to establish the stimulating forces (beliefs) and mechanisms (strategies) propelling their progression or retrogression in learning various subjects at school. As a consequence of the deteriorating student performance, the education sector has received serious backlashes from a cross-section of Liberians including President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who had called for its total overhaul, stressing the need for concerted efforts to address the situation. (2)Which strategies do Liberian students prefer in their quest to learn? They must also ensure that students learn to ask for assistance whenever necessary. This finding is overwhelmingly supported by a number of previous studies [27–29] and increases our comprehensibility of motivational beliefs and strategy use. The school administrators and teachers were consulted by FREE Liberia, informing them about the purpose of the study and soliciting their acquiescence to allow their students to participate in the research. Government through the Ministry of Education should make efforts to train and employ more school counsellors and psychologists to motivate, guide, and mentor students to remain focused and purposeful in their academic pursuits. Liberian parents, school administrators, policymakers, and partners must work out modalities to quench the level of divulged worries among students. 1 (2018): 1-8. doi: 10.12691/education-6-1-1. Gender – in the first three years of high school, girls will have higher rates of absenteeism than March 10, 2017 rimmia. Intercorrelations between Liberian junior and senior high school students’ motivational beliefs and strategy use. the effect of bullying on academic performance of students in selected secondary schools ABSTRACT The project consist of five (5) chapters among the important content of chapter one include the introduction, background to the study, statement of problems, limitation of t he study, definition of terms and purposes of study. Table 1 presents descriptive statistical results on the coefficient alphas, means, and standard deviations of each belief component. Besides, parents must limit workloads given to school going age children and provide sufficient time for them to study their lessons. This is supportive of exposition that the presence of motivation prompts the use of different types of strategies by learners [27]. Hence, a number of recommendations and implications for action and future research are proffered. At this point, making straightforward generalized statements about these mean differences seems unrealistic. This was even statistically significant for worrying about life challenges (poverty) and others (see Table 5), in comparison with male counterparts. Liberian students with good level of motivational beliefs are capable of using numerous learning strategies. Methods: A quantitative cross sectional descriptive survey design was used. (9)Finally, despite budgetary constraints, the Liberian government must annually endeavour to augment its education budget to enable the Ministry of Education to transcend from just paying education staff at central and decentralized levels to funding meaningful education programs that stimulate quality teaching and learning in schools. [8] have demonstrated that positive motivational beliefs positively related to higher levels of self-regulated learning. Rehearsal strategies have the highest mean (M = 3.84, SD = .85) and affective strategies obtained the lowest mean (M = 3.10, SD = .64). Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons added that students’ belief about their academic efficacy can provide an essential window for understanding individual differences in learning and motivation. Gyambrah, “Relationship between Parental Involvement and Academic Performance of Senior High School Students: The ase of Ashanti Mampong Municipality of GhanaC .” American Journal of Educational Research , vol. Review of Related Literature There are many causes of poor performance in English language among senior secondary school students. At this time, they could scrupulously report on factors that impeded their learning. [10] noted that motivation plays an important role in learning because it greatly explains academic performance. INTERNET AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE 1. For instance, teachers can promote students’ task value for lessons by stressing the value of education to students’ future. The result also showed significant relationships between the two constructs. school academic performance of high school sophomores and juniors in one high school was investigated in this study. If teachers are not adequately contextualizing and simplifying complex information from abstract to concrete, students may resolve to memorizing and reproducing during exams. The following are conclusions of this research. The grant provided resources for strengthening the management capacity and accountability in the education sector. Pintrich et al. Measuring of academic performance of students is challenging since student ... “High school students’ level of performance is with statistically significant differences, linked to their gender, grade level, school ... in the literature will prove to be only weakly related to student performance in this study. From the literature reviewed, we can generally hypothesize that the types of motivations and strategy use are responsible for the decline in Liberian students’ academic performance, particularly for takers of WAEC exams. Hypothesis. R.Q.1. This could have led to making more generalized and conclusive statements about beliefs and strategies in relation to academic performance of Liberian students. The Academic Perform, Nce of the Students with Their Eating Habits . Students are worried about life challenges (poverty) and future uncertainties. Gasco et al. Drawing from the findings, this study offers a number of conclusions, vital for teaching, learning, and policy-making, particularly in Liberia. Alderman [15] indicates that those students who have optimum motivation have an edge because they have adaptive attitudes and strategies, such as maintaining intrinsic interest, goal setting, and self-monitoring. Effects of Romantic Relationships on Academic Performance of High School Students. A person’s education is closely linked with his or her life chances, income and general well-being. Student academic performance measurement has received considerable attention in previous research, it is challenging aspects of academic literature, and science student performance are affected due to social, psychological, economic, environmental and personal factors. Unexpectedly, harassment as a hindrance to learning did not reach significance level for both genders. (1)Liberian junior and senior high school students possess various motivational beliefs in their quest to acquire education. However, this contravenes previous studies that male and female students have significant differences in test anxiety, self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning [10, 11]. (3)Does there exist relationship between students’ motivations and strategy use? Relative to gender roles, female participants reported greater extrinsic, control for learning beliefs, self-efficacy, and test anxiety, while male participants had edge when it comes to intrinsic goal orientation and task value. In the words of Zimmerman [21], self-regulated learning strategies are actions and processes directed at acquiring information or skill that involve agency, purpose, and instrumentality perceptions by learners. Furthermore, motivational beliefs are very essential to the academic achievement of students because they help to determine the extent to which students will consider, value, put in effort, and show interest in the task [17–19]. For strategy use, the descriptive statistics on the mean differences showed slight variations in various strategy use. Results from frequency analyses showed worrying about life challenges (poverty) with 57.9% and access to school (distance to and from school) with 48.9% as the most critical factors affecting students learning. Because of high harmful nature of worries (poverty) to academic performance, Capra [30] urged authorities to “treat poverty, a condition that erodes our future and impedes any attempts at educational reform.” According to Capra, eradicating poverty and improving education are inextricably connected. require an academic review of literature (Sahin et al., 2010). Getting to and from school remains a paramount challenge. Cognizant of the fact these learning hindrances have more serious consequences for girls’ education, addressing these challenges would go a long way in increasing girls’ chances for enrolment, retention, and completion. FREE Liberia is a registered and duly accredited not-for-profit NGO aimed at improving lives through quality research, education, and empowerment. The significance of the main preferred strategy use (rehearsal) cut across all the components investigated in this study. Total involvement of parents is highly necessary. Finally, despite budgetary constraints, the Liberian government must annually endeavour to augment its education budget to enable the Ministry of Education to transcend from just paying education staff at central and decentralized levels to funding meaningful education programs that stimulate quality teaching and learning in schools. The sector, like many others, was seriously affected as a result of years of civil unrests, resulting in the destruction of learning facilities and lack of qualified teachers as well as libraries and laboratories to promote smooth teaching and learning in Liberia. The general expectancy-value model of motivation characterizes motivation into three components: value components that include goal orientation and task value; expectancy components that include self-efficacy and control beliefs; and the effective construct of test anxiety [18], all of which are considered in this study. They are also grateful to Mr. Flemmings Fishani Ngwira and other colleagues for their inputs to the final product of this article. Not-for-profit Liberian research institutions like FREE Liberia, higher education entities, and scholars should be supported morally or financially to routinely conduct empirical research projects in the country and disseminate findings thereof. Capitalizing on the decline of students’ performance, the study anticipated that Liberian junior and senior high school students would be less self-efficacious and would utilize more rehearsal and organization strategies. J. Razonable. From Table 5, female students showed significant differences for worrying about life challenges (poverty) (female: mean = 2.02, SD = .98 and male: mean = 1.52, SD = .86) (323) = −4.831, (2-tailed) = 0.001. (1)Based on the significant role of motivation recognized in this study, teachers need to focus keen attention on motivating their students to promote their self-efficacies, always urging students to believe in their abilities to do well, and they (teachers) must also believe in their students. In addition, teachers should assist their students to clearly understand the need for them to build up beliefs like task value, self-efficacy for learning and performance, intrinsic goal orientation, and control for learning beliefs as well as use of critical thinking, effort regulation, and peer and help seeking strategies to enhance their learning process. The implication is that if learners are not motivated to enable them to believe in themselves and ask for help, it could affect their dispositions for lifelong learning and their capacities to succeed in various difficult life situations. Related literature and study Senior high school According to Official Gazette (2012), Senior High School is two years of specialized upper secondary education; students may choose a specialization based on aptitude, interests, and school capacity. The variables looked at were dating status (single or involved), level of involvement in … But these differences are infinitesimal as they failed to reach statistical significance for all motivational belief components. This rejects our hypothesis that poor learning facilities and harassment were going to top the list of learning hindrances. Intrinsic goal orientation and self-efficacy for learning and performance were all positively correlated with organization, critical thinking, time and study environment management, and peer learning and help seeking strategies. Being a male or a female does not give any Liberian junior or senior high school student outright advantage.