Major Factors Affecting the English Achievement Upper Primary School Pupils in Gondar Town
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Date
1994-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The quality of ed uca tion as reflected in academic achievement
can not be divorced from the complex set of social and
edu ca tional factors which interplay to affect l earning
processes and outcomes. The question "what makes a differ e nce
in academic performance?" has been addressed by differ ent
researchers from both the developed and the developing
countries. Within the developed countr i es much i s known about
the determinant - achievement relationships. In the developing
countries, how ever, the findings are inconclusive and
in co nsistent.
The purpose of the study was to examine the extent t o which
variables used in the Educational Production Function and the
Process-Product research approaches explain differences in
grade five and six pupi Is ' Engl ish achievement. Specifically,
the study attemptecl to inves tigate the relative impact on
pupils' achievement of seven home, six pupil, six schoolc
lassr oom ancl eleven teacher relat ed variables.
This task was accompl ished by regressing thirty ind e pendent
variables for each grade le vel . The dependent variable used as
a cri terion measure was achievement test prepared by the
investigator based on the objectives and contents determined by
the Ministry of Education for the respective grade levels. The
thirty ind e pend ent variables were selected on the basis of
review of lit eratu r e. Information on the independent variables
was secured using three basi c t oo ls of data coll ec tion:
Questionnnaire, school and classroom inventory, and classroom
evaluation rating scale.
The r e lationship between the thirty independ en t var iabl es and
pupils ' achievement at each grade l eve l was analysed by the
method of multipl e r eg ression. A var iahl e's statistical impact
on the dependent variable was acceptecl as s i gnificant at 0 . 05
a level or better .
Results of the analysis revealed that variables describing
home, pupil. school-classroom and teacher attributes have
differential impacts on students ' English achievement: some
va ria b l es (s uch as class r epet ition, father 's education and
planning sk il l) showed statisti ca lly significant impacts whil e
others (such as pup l sex, class-size, and family-size) exer t ed
nonsignifi ca nt influence. Based on these findin gs some basic
conclusions are r eac hed and related r ec omm enda tion s forwarded
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Major Factors Affecting the English Achievement Upper