Factors That Influence Course Preferences Among Students
KEYWORDS Sex. Seating Preference. With Whom Student Resides. School Location. School Proprietor. Preferred
Occupation
ABSTRACT Student learning is influenced by many factors which educational research is tasked to determine and feed into the teaching-learning process to enhance its effectiveness. Several studies with different populations have determined that that to which a learner attributes his or her performance significantly influences such performance.
To determine some of the factors that significantly impact upon students’ causal attribution of their performance on mathematics, this study ana1ysed, using chi-square (c
2
) statistics, survey research data from 717 Form D (Form 4) students. from 30 randomly selected secondary schools in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The results showed that while gender of students had no significant influence on students attribution of their performance in mathematics, the person with whom the students were living, students’ preferred occupation after school, type of proprietor of schools, and preferred classroom seating zone during mathematics lesson, each had significant influence on this variable. Based on these results, appropriate discussions and recommendations were made.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Introduction
Causal attribution has to do with causes people attribute to observations and events in their lives. Attribution theory (Heider 1944) is concerned not only with causal attribution, but also with factors that influence such attribution, as well as how this causal beliefs influence related behaviour (Nenty 1998; Bar-Tal 2000; Kallenbach and Zaft 2004; Weiner 2004; Nenty and Polaki 2005;
Attribution Theory 2009; The Executive Fast Track
2009). In the academic arena, the most important event is the success or failure of the learner to learn. Experience of failure in a task designed to test the level of learning is often followed by a
‘naive’ reaction of blaming either lack of ability,
lack
Occupation
ABSTRACT Student learning is influenced by many factors which educational research is tasked to determine and feed into the teaching-learning process to enhance its effectiveness. Several studies with different populations have determined that that to which a learner attributes his or her performance significantly influences such performance.
To determine some of the factors that significantly impact upon students’ causal attribution of their performance on mathematics, this study ana1ysed, using chi-square (c
2
) statistics, survey research data from 717 Form D (Form 4) students. from 30 randomly selected secondary schools in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The results showed that while gender of students had no significant influence on students attribution of their performance in mathematics, the person with whom the students were living, students’ preferred occupation after school, type of proprietor of schools, and preferred classroom seating zone during mathematics lesson, each had significant influence on this variable. Based on these results, appropriate discussions and recommendations were made.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Introduction
Causal attribution has to do with causes people attribute to observations and events in their lives. Attribution theory (Heider 1944) is concerned not only with causal attribution, but also with factors that influence such attribution, as well as how this causal beliefs influence related behaviour (Nenty 1998; Bar-Tal 2000; Kallenbach and Zaft 2004; Weiner 2004; Nenty and Polaki 2005;
Attribution Theory 2009; The Executive Fast Track
2009). In the academic arena, the most important event is the success or failure of the learner to learn. Experience of failure in a task designed to test the level of learning is often followed by a
‘naive’ reaction of blaming either lack of ability,
lack