Effect of Study Skills Counselling on Self-Efficacy and Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students in Ibadan-North, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of study skills counselling on self-efficacy and academic
achievement of some selected public secondary school students in Ibadan-North. The pretestposttest, control group experimental design was used. Multistage, stratified simple random
sampling technique was used to select 150 participants from two public senior secondary
schools among other public secondary schools within Ibadan North Local Government Area of
Oyo state. Seventy five (75) Participants were assigned to a treatment group of study skill
counselling (SSC) and likewise seventy five (75) in the control group. Participants in the
experimental group were exposed to eight weeks of study skill counselling, while the control
group received non therapeutic attention. Three instruments titled Study Habit Inventory
(SHI) (á=0.83). Self-Efficacy Scale (á=0.82). Academic Achievement Test on English
Language (AATEL) consisting 50 multiple choice questions extracted from senior secondary
school certificate past questions with(á=0.79) were used. Two hypotheses were tested at
0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).
Treatment had a main significant effect (F1, 147 = 2.355, p < 0.05, ç
2
 = 0.016) on improving
academic achievement of senior secondary students exposed to SSC. There was also significant
main effect of treatment (F1, 147 = 6.802, p < 0.05, ç
2
 = 0.044) in enhancing self-efficacy of
the students in the experimental group over the control group. The findings show that Study
Skills Counselling (SSC) strategy significantly affects students’ academic performance. Also,
school psychologists training in human learning and memory assessment of individual
differences should greatly facilitate their work in improving students study skills in the following
areas: assessment based consultation, students’ academic behaviour management, plan
implementation, examination anxiety reduction strategies counselling and the provision of in-service training for teachers and parents. Study skill counselling therefore should be
included in curriculum planning across all educational levels so that study skills counselling
and training are implemented as an academic programme for improvement on learners
study habits for excellent academic performance.