COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY AS A PREDICTOR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN BIOLOGY IN AWKA EDUCATION ZONE

Abstract

The study investigated cognitive flexibility as a predictor of secondary school students’ achievement in biology in Awka Education zone. Two research questions guided the study while two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Predictive correlation research design was used for the study. The population of the study comprised 4, 940 senior secondary two (SS2) students who offered Biology in the zone. A sample size of 1,500 students obtained via purposive sampling techniques was used for the study. AS face-validated Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI) was used to collect data for the study. The reliability of CFI was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha statistics which yielded coefficient of internal consistency of 0.77. The students’ achievement scores in Biology were obtained from the sampled schools teachers’ folder. The data obtained were analyzed using simple and multiple linear regressions. The findings of the study revealed among others that 0.3% of the variance in academic achievement in biology was predicted by students’ cognitive flexibility. Achievement scores in biology was significantly predicted by students’ cognitive flexibility. It was concluded that cognitive flexibility is a significant predictor of academic achievement in Biology. It was recommended that; Biology teachers should design instructions to accommodate different views to a concept as well as present problems that tasks students to shift through different cognitive processes