RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-EFFICACY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN KISWAHILI LANGUAGE SKILLS IN NAKURU COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Secondary school students’ academic achievement in Kiswahili language in Nakuru County has been low over the years. This unsatisfactory achievement could be due to the students’ self -efficacy given that it has been cited as a significant predictor of performance. This paper examined the relationship between self-efficacy and secondary school students’ academic achievement in Kiswahili language skills in Nakuru County. It was grounded on the Social Cognitive and Krashen’s Monitor Model theories and adopted the correlational research design. Purposive, proportionate and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 405 students who participated in the study. Data was collected using Students’ Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (SSEQ), and Kiswahili Language Skills Achievement Test (KLSAT). The face and content validity of the two instruments were checked through expert judgement. The reliability of SSEQ and KLSAT were estimated using the Cronbach Alpha and Kuder Richardson formulae and found to be 0.812 and 0.756 respectively. Simple linear regression test, conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Science, was utilised to determine the relationship between self-efficacy and Kiswahili language achievement. The results showed that self-efficacy mean score was at M = 3.64 (SD = 0.16) out of 5 while Kiswahili language achievement mean score was 6.70 (SD = 3.47) out of 20. There was a positive relationship (r = .262) between self-efficacy and achievement in Kiswahili language skills. Self-efficacy explained 4.2% (R² = .042) variation in the outcome and was a significant predictor of achievement in Kiswahili language skills, F (1, 402) = 17.094, p = .000. This paper concludes that students’ self-efficacy was high while achievement in Kiswahili language skills was unsatisfactory and there was none causal relationship between the two.