Thesis Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate relationship among mathematics teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, mathematics students’ task persistence and achievement of secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted correlational research design. The population for the study was 5537 which comprises of 5478 SS2 students and 59 mathematics teachers. The instrument s for data collection was mathematics teachers’ self-efficacy belief scale (MTSEBS) by Schwarzer and Jerusalem of (1995), Students Mathematics Task Persistence (SMTP) and Continuous Assessment Record (CAR). The data generated from trial testing were analyzed using Cronbach Alpha statistics an overall reliability index of 0.802 was obtained. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation statistics was used to answer the research questions while multiple regression was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 probability level. The findings of the study revealed that, there was a significant relationship between mathematics teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and students’ mathematics achievement. The findings also showed that, there was a significant relationship between students’ task persistence and students’ mathematics achievement. Based on the findings the researcher recommended that teachers training colleges should include in their curriculum courses of the study that deal on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. This training will help mathematics teachers’ cope better with their job, and also manage students with low persistence and poor achievement in mathematics task. And students should be enlightened through orientation. The orientation should be geared towards building healthy task persistence in mathematics and high achievement.

Thesis Overview