Value Priorities and Academic Achievement Among Adolescent Students of Oromia Boarding School in Bishoftu
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Date
2023-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The major purpose of this study was to examine the value priorities and its relationship with adolescents’ academic achievement by studying with sex differences in value priorities among male and female students in ODASBS at Bishoftu town, of Oromia Region. The study assessed the relationship between adolescents’ value priorities and their academic achievement based on Schwartz 10 basic universal values as a guiding theoretical framework. To that effect the correlational design of quantitative research approach was employed. Out of 353 student’s a total of 286 participants were selected using census approach after excluding 67 non-Afaan Oromo language speakers and those who have participated in the pilot study. The study used quantitative data collection tools in the form of questionnaire to collect the socio-demographic data, including self-report average semester marks was used to determine students’ academic achievement and PVQ-21 developed by Shalom Schwartz was adapted through translation was used to measure the ten basic values. To address the research questions formulated in the study, data were analyzed using descriptive statistics mean, standard deviation, frequencies, and percentage, Pearson correlation coefficients, ANOVA, and independent t-test statistical tests. The findings revealed that self-direction with mean of 3.01 (SD = 1.32), security mean of 3.23 (SD = 1.51), stimulation mean of 3.30 (SD = 1.48), benevolence mean of 3.43 (SD = 1.65), and hedonism mean of 3.71 (SD = 1.89) values are the top five preferred values, whereas the study showed that three values such as; power with the mean of 5.70 (SD = 2.38), universalism mean of 5.02 (SD = 1.91), and achievement mean of 4.91 (SD = 2.40) values are the most least preferred values of adolescent students of ODASBS in Bishoftu town. Concerning the academic achievements of adolescents, about 5.6% of the students scored 96 – 100 average marks and 11.9% of them scored below 80(the minimum cut off score set by the school for promotion to the next grade level). Fathers educational level has shown as it makes significant variation on adolescent’s self-direction values, while none of the ten values showed significant variations as a function of mother’s educational level and similarly adolescents value priorities didn’t showed variation as a function of their parents’ economic status. Achievement value is identified as the only value that counted for the differences in value priorities between male and female adolescent students. Adolescents value priorities has showed partial alignment with the expected value preservation by the Ethiopian General Education Curriculum Framework (2020), which indicates further intervention on inculcating socially and nationally desirable values. Moreover, based on the results of the current study, the following conclusion and implications were drawn. Firstly, most adolescent students in ODASBS in Bishoftu town are academically high achievers based on the average marks they have earned while attending grade nine and ten. Secondly, self-direction, security, and stimulation are the most highly preferred values by adolescents while power, universalism and achievement values are the least preferred values where these in turn implies that the Boarding school promotes self-direction values through fostering the act and though of creativity, exploration and competitiveness among students and the current findings confirmed this as an objective meeting the school strategy in producing academically excelling students. Lastly, adolescents value priorities didn’t show significant correlation with their academic achievement, but the type of highly preferred values such as self-direction are considered as one of the implications of the school strategy in driven students to acquire such value.