PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS’ MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This study investigated perceived influence of teachers’ motivational strategies on academic performance of students in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State, using three research questions and three hypotheses. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The total population was 15,374 respondents consisting of 7,767 male and 7,607 students in 309 in all the public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. A sample size of 400 respondents was selected through Taro Yemane formula and simple random sampling technique. The instrument for the study was a self-structured questionnaire titled “perceived influence of teachers’ motivational strategies on academic performance of students Questionnaire” which was validated by experts in the Departments of Measurement and Evaluation and Educational Psychology; while Cronbach Alpha was used to achieve reliability indexes of 0.90, 0.88 and 0.84. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the z-test was used in testing the formulated null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that setting clear goals and expectations, the use of gamification techniques, and building strong teacher-student relationships have positive influence on academic performance of students in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. Based on the findings, it was recommended that teachers should clearly outline goals and expectations at the beginning of each lesson, encourage students to set personal goals, regularly review progress, and provide examples of high-quality work to guide students toward focused academic effort, teachers should design gamified activities with clear learning objectives to ensure students understand their purpose and alignment with educational goals and teachers can foster strong relationships by learning about students’ interests, engaging in one-on-one conversations, creating a respectful classroom culture, and celebrating individual progress to enhance students’ motivation and sense of belonging.