SELF-EFFICACY AS CORRELATE OF EXAMINATION MISCONDUCT TENDENCY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

Examination as a means of measurement of teachers’ teaching effectiveness and students’ level of academic achievement. Thus, scores of students in examinations are utilized by educational stakeholders for the purposes of taking instructional decisions and certification. Examination misconduct is a menace that threatens the survival of secondary education system in Nigeria. This study tried to find out possible causative factor. Therefore, the study was on how test anxiety correlates with examination misconduct tendency among secondary school students in Anambra State. It was guided by three research questions and three null hypotheses. It adopted correlational research desigh. The population of the study was 12, 978 Senior Secondary school two (SS II) students (2025/2026 session) in the 266 public secondary schools in the six education zones in Anambra State. The sample for the study was made up of 1233 SS 2 students selected from the population through multi-stage sampling procedure. The researchers adopted two standardized questionnaires to obtain data from the respondents. They include: 11 item Self-Efficacy Scale. SES from Sherer et al. (1982) and 20 item Examination Misconduct Tendency Questionnaire (EMTQ) by Ossai, Ethe, Okwuedei, and Edougha, (2014). a direct approach method was adopted for data collection. The researchers made use of 65 research assistants who are teachers of the 65 public secondary schools sampled. The research assistants administered the SES and EMTQ to the respondents during their free periods. A total of 1192 copies of the two questionnaires were retrieved and used for data analysis. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to answer the research questions and testing of hypotheses was done with t-test of correlation. In taking decisions regarding the hypotheses, a null hypothesis was rejected if the probability value (p-value) is less than or equal to significant value of 0.05; if otherwise (p>0.05), the null hypothesis was not rejected. The results revealed that secondary school students’ self-efficacy have very low positive and not significant relationship with their examination misconduct tendency in Anambra State. The situation was almost the same irrespective of their areas of specialization. Based on the findings of the study and their implications, recommendations were made which include: the school counsellors should work with the teachers to integrate self-efficacy enhancement programmes into the school curriculum. Counsellors should work on building students' self-worth, self-confidence and self-reliance through individual and group counselling sessions.