Monrovia – A study conducted by the Foundation for Research, Education and Empowerment (FREE) Liberia, a local registered and accredited research and education based NGO, has unravelled some potential factors responsible for the continuous underperformance of Liberian junior and senior high school students.
According to a research article, which was published in a top Academic Journal (Education Research International), a copy of which is in the possession of this entity, the motivational beliefs and strategies reported by over 300 Liberian students from Montserrado and Margibi counties appear to be shallow and have serious repercussions for better learning outcomes.
The study showed that among six motivational belief components including intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control for learning beliefs, self-efficacy for learning and performance, and test anxiety, participants of the study demonstrated high extrinsic goal orientation and low self-efficacy for learning and performance.
This signifies that Liberian students’ quest to acquire education is being influenced by external forces. In other words, the study explained that students’ devotion to learning different subjects is because of their desires for rewards and fear of penalties from teachers and parents, and not based on their inner aspirations.
The low self-efficacy for learning and performance of students illustrates that they have limited belief in their abilities to perform a specific task, which influences how they feel, think, motivate themselves, and behave.
The FREE Liberia study attributed the high extrinsic motivation of students to misconception of the goal of education including viewing it as a matter of satisfying parents and avoiding negative chastisements from the community.
It suggests total parent involvement to bridge the disconnect between parents’ desire for their children to attain quality education and their corresponding involvement into children’s academics.
Further, the study attributed students’ self-reports of being extrinsically motivated to high emphasis being placed on grades as teachers often consider results from quizzes and tests as the only criterion for judging students’ mastery of contents and their abilities to perform better in academic and non-academic environments.
Consequently, the study notes that students are more interested in getting better test scores because they consider these scores to be the best rewards and a show of academic fulfilment, which in the long run adversely affects their disposition to perform well.
Despite the high extrinsic motivation displayed, the study observed that participants showed seemingly high task value and low test anxiety, which are healthy for improved learning outcomes. This means, there are good prospects and a big room for improvement once appropriate mechanisms is employed, the study averred.
On the strategy use by learners, the study found rehearsal strategies as the most frequently used, while help seeking was reported to be the least strategy considered. Meaning, participants are mostly interested in repeating words over and over to themselves to help in the recall of information (rehearsal).
This finding, the report said, was consistent with the extrinsic motivation of students displayed because they tend to memorize notes to pass exams. In addition to the extrapolations, it intimated that wide use of rehearsal strategies might be influenced by teaching strategies employed in the classrooms.
‘If teachers are not adequately contextualizing and simplifying complex information from abstract to concrete, students may resolve to memorizing and reproducing during exams’, the study asserted.
On the other hand, the research unearthed that students help seeking strategies were the least utilized as they insignificantly reported seeking help from peers or instructors when needed, not focusing much on the use of others in learning.
‘Such thing might be hampering their chances of progressing deeply in their learning pursuits as it is a necessary ingredient for academic success, recommending that students be motivated to muster courage to solicit assistance whenever necessary’ the report stressed.
To further comprehend the reported underperformance of Liberian junior and senior high school students, FREE Liberia solicited students’ self-reports about factors hindering their learning.
From a list of 12 potential perceived learning hindrances, the results showed worrying about life challenges (poverty) with 57.9% and access to school (distance to and from school) with 48.9% as the most critical factors affecting students’ learning.
The students also reported poor learning facilities and harassment as other issues that impede their learning. The least reported hindrances, according to the study, were peer pressure (going out friends) and video clubs/games with little over 17% overall effect.
When the hindrances were plotted in line with gender, the study found females to be the most victimized, particularly when it comes to poor learning facilities and harassment in schools.
According to the study, female students reported higher effect on their learning for most of the factors in comparison with their male counterparts. Cognizant of this, the study posited that addressing some of the challenges in Liberia’s education sector would go a long way in increasing girls’ chances for enrolment, retention, and completion.
Based on the findings, the study concluded that the performance of Liberian junior and senior high school students is moderate, in consistence with prevailing learning conditions, and there is a strong need for a paradigm shift to provide the quality of education fervently deserved and desired for all Liberian children.
Accordingly, the FREE Liberia study proffered a number of recommendations:
(1) Teachers need to focus keen attention on motivating their students to promote their self-efficacies, always urging students to believe in their abilities to do well, and they (teachers) must also believe in their students. They must also ensure that students learn to ask for assistance whenever necessary.
(2) Teachers must be trained to integrate the essence of motivational beliefs and the need for students to use all kinds of strategies during instructions. In addition, teachers should assist their students to clearly understand the need for them to build up beliefs like task value, self-efficacy for learning and performance, intrinsic goal orientation, and control for learning beliefs as well as use of critical thinking, effort regulation, and peer and help seeking strategies to enhance their learning process.
(3) Student evaluation must be meticulous and holistic. Emphasis must not only be placed on grades or rewards as the surest way to academic success, but it must also consider other skills and talents of students. Pupils must be repeatedly reminded to learn for their own good and the good of the society; hence, there is no need for bribery and other academic malpractice to get higher scores. Abolition of fire list in schools is recommended.
(4) Liberian government through the Ministry of Education and partners must intensify efforts to alleviate various problems confronting students including worries about life challenges (poverty), access, poor learning facilities, and harassment in schools. Recreational, school feeding, transportation, continual improvement of schools, and stringent measures against harassment must be assertively supported.
(5) Government through the Ministry of Education should make efforts to train and employ more school counsellors and psychologists to motivate, guide, and mentor students to remain focused and purposeful in their academic pursuits.
(6) Parents must desist from using children as breadwinners; National Government is recommended to compel compliance. Besides, parents must limit workloads given to school going age children and provide sufficient time for them to study their lessons. Effort must be made by both educated and uneducated parents to make time to support their children’s learning at home.
(7)There is a glaring need for the Liberian government (Ministry of Education) and partners to undertake or fund systematic research projects (research commissions) to promote better understanding of Liberia’s education challenges and prospects.
Not-for-profit Liberian research institutions like FREE Liberia, higher education entities, and scholars should be supported morally or financially to routinely conduct empirical research projects in the country and disseminate findings thereof, and
(8) Interventions in the education sector must be backed by empirical evidence to enhance possibilities of programs success. Policy-making and programs must be informed by these research findings, and not by mere intuitions or presuppositions.
It can be recalled that the academic performance of Liberian students has not been satisfactory to many for nearly a decade now. A sizable number of education stakeholders believe inputs in the sector do not commensurate with student attainment in regional exams.
Though their judgement might tend to be subjective and relies exclusively on 9th and 12 graders low performance in the WAEC exams, it seems apparently logical.
The Foundation for Research, Education and Empowerment (FREE) Liberia, is a local research and education based NGO, dedicated to improving lives through quality research and education. It is run by a group of Liberian professional researchers, scholars and academicians.
This research project, reported herein, was spearheaded by Mr. Charles Gbollie, the Founder and Executive Director of the organization and a PhD candidate at Central China Normal University. It was co-authored by Harriett Pearl Keamu.
Analysts believe that empirical research is very vital to informing policy formulation, planning and programs implementation for more effective and impacting outcomes.