Psychological predictors of physics learners’ achievement: The moderating influence of gender

Title

Psychological predictors of physics learners’ achievement: The
moderating influence of gender

Author(s)

Christian S. Ugwuanyi, Chinedu I. O. Okeke & Terpase A. Ageda See all items with this value

Date

2020 See all items with this value

Description

Psychological factors like motivation and self-efficacy have been found to have significant predictive powers on learners’ achievement in physics but literature is silent on how gender influences their predictive powers. Based on this premise, the researchers sought the predictive powers of motivation and self-efficacy on physics learners’ achievement based on gender. A correlational survey research design was adopted for the study with a sample of 375 senior secondary 3 physics learners. Learners' Psychological Factors scale was used for data collection. The internal consistency reliability indices of the items of the two clusters of the instrument were obtained as 0.78 and 0.81 using the Cronbach alpha method. Data were analyzed using regression analysis and t-test of independent samples. Results showed that gender had a significant moderating influence on the predictive powers of motivation and self-efficacy on learners' academic achievement in physics in favor of male physics learners. This
implies that male physics learners had higher motivation and self-efficacy than their female counterparts, thereby having higher achievement in physics than later. It was recommended that a favorable academic environment should be provided for female learners to promote their motivation and self-efficacy.

Publisher

Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences See all items with this value

Keywords

Gender, Learners’ Achievement, Moderating Influence Physics, Psychological predictors See all items with this value

volume

15

issue

4

pages

834 - 842

A Vision and Mission

Psychological predictors of physics learners’ achievement: The moderating influence of gender