DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF INSTRUMENT FOR ASSESSING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN THE LEARNING OF BIOLOGY IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument for assessing students’ motivation in the learning of biology in senior secondary schools. Two research questions guided the study. The study was carried out in Nnewi education zone of Anambra state. The population of this study is 2,380 Senior Secondary School two (SS11) Students in 49 public Senior Secondary schools in Nnewi education zone in the 2022/2023 academic year. The sample of the study is 368 SSII Economics students drawn from 32 co-educational public schools out of the 49 public secondary schools in Nnewi Education Zone, Anambra State. Simple random technique was used to draw the sample for the study. Two local governments were drawn out of the four LGA in the zone. The local governments were, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo LGAs. Four (4) schools were drawn from each of the two (2) local governments that participated in the study (that is 8 schools in all). All the SS2 biology students (368) from the sampled eight schools constituted the sample for the study. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-developed questionnaire titled ‘Students’ Motivation Learning Biology Scale (SMLBS). The questionnaire was structured on a 4-point rating scale of Strongly Agree (SA); Agree (A); Disagree (D); and Strongly Disagree (SD) with numerical values of 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. To ensure the face validity of the instrument, the initial draft of the instrument (SMLBS) was submitted to three experts for validation, two from Measurement and Evaluation and one from Education/Biology. The experts were requested to examine the items of the instrument in terms of its content, relevance and item clarity. Also, the experts were equally requested to make corrections in order to ensure that the language is understandable and clear to the respondents. Based on the observations of these experts, the research instrument was modified appropriately. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through trial- testing of the instrument developed by the researcher. Thirty biology students were used. The reason for trial-testing was to determine the internal consistency of the items. Cronbach Alpha was used to ascertain the reliability coefficient. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to test the reliability because the items of the instrument are polytomously scored. The reliability coefficients for clusters A to F were 0.83, 0.83, 0.87, 0.70, 0.88 and 0.71 respectively. The overall reliability coefficient was 0.85. This showed that the instrument was reliable and could be used for the study. Direct delivery and retrieval technique were used by the researcher and two research assistants to collect the required data for the study. Research question one was analyzed using factor analysis and research question two was analyzed. The implication of the study was highlighted and it was recommended among other things that curriculum planners should always involve teachers in curriculum reform for effective implementation of students’ motivation in the learning process in senior secondary schools. This is because teachers are the real implementers of secondary school curriculum to a great extent.