AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE POOR ACQUISITION OF VALUES AND ATTITUDE OF SSS2 STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

Inculcation of values among the students can play a very important role by shielding them from negative influences which may be caused due to present day gross consumerism and an aggressive rush for self fulfilment. Over the past two decades, colleges and institutions have devoted energy and resources to a wide range of educational programs and initiatives designed to promote character values and behaviours in their students. Value education forms a part of the curriculum in different educational settings across the globe. Countries like India, Australia and Singapore lay a strong emphasis on imparting value education through well defined curricula and syllabi. In this study, an attempt has been made to investigate effect of poor acquisition of values and attitude of sss2 students in selected secondary schools in Wamba local government area of Nassarawa state.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

The need of value education in today’s context cannot be overemphasised. These days we are all surrounded by gross consumerism and an aggressive rush for self fulfilment. Moreover, the social system worldwide is undergoing great transformation. In Nigeria scenario, for example, we are gradually moving from joint family system to nuclear family system. Also, there is a high degree of stress, especially in the younger generation, owing to fast paced modern day lifestyle. Factors like religious fanaticism, stockpiling of nuclear weapons and terrorist activities are posing grave threats to global peace. There is a proliferation of vast amounts of information because of internet and media, and this may cause negative impacts, mainly in the more impressionable young minds, unless and until they have something robust to anchor upon. It is here that inculcation of values among the students can play a very important role by shielding them from all such influences. Much research has been undertaken to examine the composition and structure of personal values (e.g., Allport, 1924; Feather, 1975; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 1994a, 1994b) and learning approaches (e.g., Biggs, 1987a, 1987b; Marton & Säljö, 1976a, 1976b). Based on these developments, educational studies attempted to explore the relationship between personal values and learning approaches. Thus, for example, Ng and Renshaw (2002, 2003) correlated achievement goals with personal values that were assumed to influence achievement and showed that mastery goals were associated with motivations or engagement patterns and strategies that were consistent with a deep approach to learning. This approach, in turn, was related to positive learning outcomes. In contrast, performance goals were associated with motivations and strategies that tended to be superficial in nature and consistent with a surface approach to learning that yielded a lower level of achievement. This relationship was confirmed by a number of studies (Chan, 2002; Grant & Dweck, 2001; Hau & Salili, 1996; Lai & Biggs, 1994; Lietz & Matthews, 2010; Salili, 1996; Watkins, 2003; Wilding & Andrews, 2006). Research in this area also showed that values were related to different approaches to learning. Matthews (2004), for example, found that sojourner students in Australia who had low integrity values also showed higher preference for surface learning with a strong positive correlation to the achieving motive. Students who were low in values associated with the Confucian ethos, on the other hand, showed a positive preference for the deep strategy and achieving motive subscales in their approach to learning. Specific associations between values and learning approaches were also empirically confirmed by Matthews, Lietz and Darmawan (2007), who related the ten values as postulated by Schwartz et al. (2001) to Biggs’ (1987a) six subscales that formed three learning approaches by means of the canonical correlation analysis. Such personal values as achievement and power were related to the achieving approach, security and tradition values to the surface approach, and self-direction and universalism to the deep learning approach. Over the past two decades, colleges and institutions have devoted energy and resources to a wide range of educational programmes and initiatives designed to promote character values and behaviours in their students (Dalton and Crosby, 2010). Value education forms a part of the curriculum in different educational settings across the globe. Countries like India, Australia and Singapore lay a strong emphasis on imparting value education through well defined curricula and syllabi. In Singapore, values education forms a part of the Pre University Civics syllabus (MOE, 2010). The revised Pre-University Civics Syllabus is based on the central theme, Making a Difference. The focus is on engaging students to play an active role in helping to improve the quality of civic life in the community and to take the lead in service to others. The Indian national policy on education (1986) as modified in 1992, considered value education as an integral part of education and noted that (UGC, 2010): “The existing schism between the formal system of education and the country’s rich and varied cultural traditions needs to be bridged. Education can and must bring about the fine synthesis between change oriented technologies and the country’s continuity of cultural tradition. The curricula and processes of education will be enriched by cultural content in as many manifestations as possible. In our culturally plural society, education should foster universal and eternal values, oriented towards  the unity and integration of our people. Such value education should help eliminate obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition and fatalism. Apart from this combative role, value education has a profound positive content, based on our heritage, national and universal goals and perceptions. It should lay primary emphasis on this aspect. The growing concern over the erosion of essential values and an increasing cynicism in society has brought to focus the need for readjustments in the curriculum in order to make education a forceful tool for cultivation of social and moral values.” In Nigeria the value education helps students understand and be able to apply values such as care and compassion; doing your best; fair go; freedom; honesty and trustworthiness; integrity; respect; responsibility and understanding; tolerance and inclusion (Values education, 2010). In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyse the impacts of value education on the academic performance of the students as well as the overall environment of the academic institutions where value education programmes have been explicitly put into practice

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Value is a philosophical concept, diverse in nature and controversial in content. Different schools of thought differ on issues like definition of value, forms/classification of value, subjectivity/objectivity of value, what is of value etc. Despite its controversial nature, it is still widely acknowledged as an influential factor in the affairs of human being. It is reputed to have the ability of influencing human being, propelling them into doing certain things while avoiding doing others. Value is an underlying factor in the concept of choice; it is as intrinsic to human being as rationality; it determines what is cherished or refused; it decides what is rejected or accepted Rogers defined value as the tendency to show preference (Okafor, 1992). Value may be positive or negative. This is however a function of the society; as what is considered a positive value in one society may be a negative value in another society. For instance, same-sex marriage, involving gay and lesbian relationships, is seen as a negative value in Nigeria, but it is a positive value in Belgium where same-sex marriage is legalized nation-wide. It is in view of the above that the researcher intends to investigate the causes of poor acquisition of values and attitude of SSSII students in secondary schools

• OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to investigate the poor acquisition of values and attitude of SSSII students in secondary schools;

But to aid the completion of the study, the researcher intends to achieve the following specific objectives;

1. To ascertain the causes of poor attitude to the acquisition of values among SSSII student in secondary schools in Wamba LGA of Nassarawa state
2. To examine the relationship between negative attitude and academic performance of SSS II students

• To examine the role of parent in inculcating the right values on their wards

1. To ascertain the effect poor value acquisition on the academic and social wellbeing of the student
   • RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the completion of the study;

H₀: there is no significant relationship between negative attitude and academic performance of SSS II students

H₁: there is a significant relationship between negative attitude and academic performance of SSS II students

H₀: the parent does not play any significant role in inculcating the right values on their wards

H₂: the parent plays a significant role in inculcating the right values on their wards

• RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions were formulated by the researcher;

1. Are they causes of poor attitude to the acquisition of values among SSSII student in secondary schools in Wamba LGA of Nassarawa state?
2. Is there any relationship between negative attitude and academic performance of SSS II students?

• Does the parent play any role in inculcating the right values on their wards?

1. Are they effect poor value acquisition on the academic and social wellbeing of the student?
   • SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great importance to the ministry of education in formulating policies that will aid in elimination of negative values among secondary school students, the study will also be useful to the management of public secondary schools in formulating and implementing laws that frown at negative societal values among their students as the study seek to explore the nemesis of negative values on the academic pursuit of secondary school students, the study will also be useful to researchers who intend to embark on a study in a similar topic as the study will serve as a reference point to further research, finally the study will be of importance to teachers, students, lecturers and the general public as the findings will add to the pool of existing literature on the subject matter.

• THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The Social Learning Theory

This theory was propounded by Albert Bandura in 1977.He was born on 4th Decemeber, 1925 in the small town of Mundare in Northern Alberta Canada. The 28 theory is based on the major premise that behavior is learned and can be unlearn. Behaviour is in general ,a function of one’s personality and the environment. Man is born with some innate potentials which the environment conditions. Similarly, one can influence his or her environment using the personality qualities.Consequently.as one interacts in the environment, the adolescents consciously or unconsciously observes and imitates and displays behavior of models. Hence, Bandura posits that there is interrelationship between man’s personality, the behaviour and environmental factors. According to Bandura indeed, the entire three elements: the person, the behaviour and the environmental situation are highly interrelated variables each being capable of influencing the other, this can be illustrated using the diagram. The social learning theory emphasizes the importance of observing and imitating the behavior, attitudes and emotional reaction of others. Thus it focuses on learning by observation and imitation. Imitation and modelling of influential persons or models also depend on reinforcement. This reinforcement can either be direct or vicarious in direct reinforcement, the person imitating the model receives reinforcement directly. When a child, for instance is praised for exhibiting a behaviour, he was received P B E 29 direct reinforcement. In vicarious reinforcement, the person imitating the model does not get reinforced directly. It is rather the model that is reinforced. When one watch a model being reinforced, he is also reinforced indirectly. This is vicarious reinforcement. The motivation to identify with a particular model stems from the fact that this model possess a quality which the individual would like to possess. Identification with a model involves the individual taking on observed behaviours, values, beliefs and attitudes of the person with whom he is identifying. Relating it to the present study, adolescents can model their behaviour after their peers who have positive attitudes and behaviour towards education; in order to enhance their academic performance. This theory applied to the adolescent, could be an explanation for the seeming relationship that may exist among peer pressure, time management and academic performance. The implication is that for any adolescent who is influenced by positive peer pressure, who utilizes his/her time judiciously there is a tendency for the person to do better in his/her academics than the adolescent who do otherwise. This theory is therefore relevant to this study in the sense that, it will help students, to acquire the capacity of solving his own problem. It will also help student to learn the characteristics behaviour that make up their personality through observation and imitation.

• SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study covers an investigation into the poor acquisition of values and attitudes of SSS II students in secondary schools in Wamba LGA of Nassarawa state, in the cause of the study, there were some factors that limited the scope of the study;

1. a) AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study
2. b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.
3. c) FINANCE: Limited Access to the needed finances to broaden the scope of the study was a major constrain as the finances at the disposal of the researcher was very limited.

1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

Values

Value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining what actions are best to do or what way is best to live, or to describe the significance of different actions

Attitude

Attitude is a psychological construct, a mental and emotional entity that inheres in, or characterizes a person. They are complex and an acquired state through experiences.

Secondary school

Secondary school is both an organization that provides secondary education and the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools can provide both lower secondary education and upper secondary education (levels 2 and 3 of the ISCED scale), but these can also be provided in separate schools, as in the American middle school- high school system.

Moral behavior

Morality refers to one’s beliefs about right and wrong and involves traits such as honesty, fairness and responsibility. Children internalize the prosocial and moral behaviors they observe from others

1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows. Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (background of the study), statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope of the study etc. Chapter two being the review of the related literature presents the theoretical framework, conceptual framework and other areas concerning the subject matter.     Chapter three is a research methodology covers deals on the research design and methods adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.

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