Influence of Self-Regulation on Students’ Academic Performance in Mixed Day Public Secondary Schools in Belgut Sub-County, Kericho County, Kenya

Abstract

Research on how students’ personal factors affect academic performance has mostly focused on family background, gender, and attitude, with less emphasis on psychological factors. Academic performance in mixed day public secondary schools has been poor in Belgut Sub-County and other parts of Kenya. Whereas efforts have been made by the government and stakeholders in the education sector to address disparities in achievement, most mixed day public secondary schools continue to perform below boarding schools. The purpose of this research was to study the influence of self-regulation on students’ academic performance in mixed day public secondary schools in Belgut Sub-County, Kericho County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study comprised: to examine the influence of goal setting, selfefficacy, information seeking and self-assessment on students’ academic performance in mixed day public secondary schools in Belgut Sub-County. The study was anchored on social cognitive theory. The study used quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and adopted a concurrent triangulation research design to establish predictive relationships among the variables. The study population were all students from mixed day public secondary schools in Belgut Sub-County. The target population consisted of 2213 form III students and 56 class teachers (in charge of Form III class) from which a sample of 306 students and 17 teachers were obtained using simple random sampling technique. Semi-Structured questionnaires were adopted for students. The interview guide for teachers was in semi-structure form to mainly collect qualitative data. Further, document analysis checklist was used to obtain students’ examination scores from school records (continuous and end term results). Validity of the research instruments was determined through content validation method where recommendations received were incorporated in the final questionnaire. Thereafter, a pilot study was conducted on 30 Form III students selected from mixed day public secondary schools in Bureti Sub-County whereby Cronbach Alpha above 0.7 was obtained, hence the instrument was reliable. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to analyse the data. Specifically, multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. The results revealed that students were often able to set goals as well as develop daily and weekly schedules. Therefore, goal setting had positive statistical significant influence on academic performance of students. The findings also revealed that the students were self-driven and chose their learning environment. The self-efficacy had positive statistically significant influence on student’s academic performance. The students were able to ask questions during learning and liaise with classmates in identifying difficult areas. Therefore, information seeking had positive significant influence on student’s academic performance. The study found that students were able to ask questions on the subject as well as identify deviation of the results. Self-assessment was found to have positive statistically significant influence on students’ academic performance. The study concluded that self-regulation through setting a goal, selfefficacy, information seeking and self-assessment had a statistically significant positive influence on academic performance. The study recommended that students should be trained on how to set standards for their long-term improvement and to do selfevaluation. Parents and teachers were also encouraged to motivate their students.