EMOTIONAL-INTELLIGENCE, REASONING ABILITY AND SELF- EFFICACY AS PREDICTORS OF ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CHEMISTRY STUDENTS, IN ZONKWA EDUCATION ZONE KADUNA STATE NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the Relationship of Emotional-intelligence, Reasoning ability, and Self-efficacy as Predictors of Achievement of Senior Secondary School Chemistry Student. The research design for the study was correlation survey design. The instruments used for the study were the Trait Emotional-Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT) and Chemistry Self – Efficacy Instrument (CSI) while the student (MOCK) examination result was used as chemistry achievement scores. The reliability coefficient of the instruments are as follow; Trait Emotional-Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) = 0.80, Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT) = 0.85, Chemistry Self – Efficacy Instrument (CSI) = 0.75 and MOCK exam = 0.82. The participant in the study were 152 (89 male, 63 female) secondary school students from Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria, with average age of 17 years. Random sampling was used to select the schools, while intact classes were used. To guide the study four research questions and four null hypotheses were generated and tested at

0.05 level of significance. The responses of the students to the instruments were scored and analyzed using descriptive statistics of means and standard deviations; the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Analysis of Variance MANOVA were used to test correlation at P< 0.05. The results showed that there was a significant positive relationship among emotional intelligence, reasoning ability, self-efficacy and academic achievement in chemistry. The results also indicated that there was a significant positive relationship among emotional intelligence, reasoning ability, self – efficacy and academic achievement of SS II male students, SS II female students and their academic achievement in chemistry. The results further indicated no significant differences between SS II male and female mean scores in chemistry, emotional intelligence, reasoning ability and self efficacy. It was therefore concluded that emotional – intelligence, reasoning ability and self – efficacy are predictors of achievement in chemistry. Self efficacy being the strongest positive predictor while reasoning ability being the least positive predictor. It is recommended that science teachers should encourage their students to develop positive emotional-intelligence, strong reasoning ability and self-efficacy towards learning chemistry so as to perform better in natural science.