Goal Setting and Students’ Academic Achievement in Mixed Day Public Secondary Schools

Abstract

Research on how students' personal factors affect 14-August-2024 20-August-2024academic achievement has mostly focused on family background, gender, and attitude, with less emphasis on goal setting. Academic performance in mixed day public secondary schools has been poor in Belgut Sub-County and other part 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 study was to examine goal setting on students’ academic achievement 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 adopt a concurrent triangulation research design to establish predictive relationships among the variables. The study population were all students in mixed day public secondary schools in Belgut Sub-County. The target population were the 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 were in semi-structure form to mainly collect qualitative data. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to analyse the data. Specifically, 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 achievement of students (β1=0.990, P=0.000<0.05). The study concluded that goal setting had positive statistically significant influence on academic achievement of students. The study recommended that teachers should provide learning resource and assistance to students to improve their academic achievement.