Relationship between Psychological Determinants and Students’ Performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in Mombasa County, Kenya

Abstract

Psychological determinants refer to thoughts, feelings and other cognitive characteristics that affect behaviour. These determinants indicate how learners perceive, interact and respond to the learning environment. The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) performance plays an important role in determining the educational trajectories of students. Those who excel are able to join institutions of higher learning and become valuable human resource who are able to ignite economic and social development in Kenya. The declining level of KCSE performance in Mombasa County is a cause for concern among education stakeholders; the study therefore seeks to address this concern by finding out if there is a relationship between psychological determinants and students KCSE performance in Mombasa County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives; find out the relationship between selfesteem and KCSE performance, find out the relationship between educational aspiration and KCSE performance, and find out the relationship between attitude towards education and KCSE performance in Mombasa County, Kenya.The study adopted correlation research design and exploratory research design. It was conducted in Mombasa in all the six sub counties namely Mvita, Kisauni, Nyali, Jomvu, Changamwe and Likoni. The target population had 8648 form four students in 126 secondary schools, 126 academic Masters and Mistresses and six sub county Directors of education. Purposive sampling was used to select 864 students 21 academic Masters/Mistresses and six sub county Directors of Education. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to divide the student population to private and public. The two categories were further stratified to sub groups that included; boys’ day schools, girls’ day schools, boys’ boarding schools, girls’ boarding schools, mixed day schools and mixed boarding schools. Validity of the instruments was ascertained by ensuring that the instruments used in the study were in line with the study objectives. Reliability was verified by using test-retest method and was confirmed to be 0.794.Instruments for data collection comprised of students' questionnaires, KCSE examination score sheets, semi structured interviews for the academic Masters/Mistresses and for the sub county Directors of education. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Quantitative data was analysed with aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 20 and qualitative data applied thematic analysis. Data was described using means, frequencies and percentages while all the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between students’ self-esteem and KCSE performance (r=0.387, N=864. p<0.001).Results from correlation analysis on the relationship between educational aspiration and KCSE performance (r=0.404, N=864. p<0.001) illustrates a positive and significant relationship between educational aspiration and students KCSE performance. Correlation analysis illustrates a positive and significant relationship between attitude towards education (r=0.359, N=864. p<0.001) and students performance in KCSE.Recommendations includes school counselling interventions to improve performance, promotion of formative learning and nurturing students attitude in order that they can excel in school.