ANALYSIS OF PERCEIVE DETERMINANTS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SHORTHAND COURSE IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN DELTA STATE

ABSTRACT

The study analyzed the perceive determinants influencing students’ academic performance in shorthand course in colleges of education in Delta State. Four research questions were raised to guide the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 levels of significance for the study. The population of the study was 109 year III students from the four government owned colleges of education in Delta State. There was no sampling as the entire population was used. The descriptive survey research design was used for this study. The instrument used was validated by three experts. Chronbach Alpha method was used to compute reliability of the instrument which yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.81. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation. The t-test was used to test the hypotheses. From the results of the analysis, it was discovered that the perceive determinants that influence students’ academic performance in shorthand course in colleges of education in Delta State are students interest, students study habits, peer group and gender. The three groups of students (high & low, urban & rural and federal & state) did not differ significantly in their rating on their perception influencing academic performance in shorthand in colleges of education in Delta State hence the null hypotheses acceptance. Consequently, it was recommended that there should be strong awareness campaigns by shorthand advocates; government, teachers and curriculum planners to students on the importance of shorthand to the modern society as to improve the perception among the students. Teachers should provide purposeful and meaningful classroom instruction keeping in mind that students come from different background and schools should re-orientate parents on the importance of creating favourable socio-psychological atmosphere at home for the children by providing them with educative materials. Furthermore, students’ should be encouraged for shorthand learning by providing requisite and adequate teaching materials to arouse their interest for the course. Finally, recommendations were made for further studies such as determinants influence the teaching and learning of shorthand course in colleges of education.