Grit As A Predictor Of Secondary School Students' Science Academic Achievement In Enugu State, Nigeria: Implication For Educational Foundations

The growing rate of poor academic achievement of students at the secondary school level, the contradictory results on the influence of grit on academic achievement from previous studies, and the dearth of study on the predictive validity of grit on academic achievement of students in Nigeria necessitated the study. The study assessed grit as a predictor of students' academic achievement in science. The study adopted a correlational survey research approach. 385 SS3 students drawn by using multi-stage sampling procedures (simple random and proportionate stratified sampling technique) participated in the study. Grit Questionnaire adapted from Duckworth and Quinn (2009) and Science Students' Score Proforma (PSSP) were used for data collection. The instruments were face-validated. The internal consistency of the questionnaire items was determined using Cronbach Alpha, which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.83. Data collected were analyzed using regression analysis and t-test for the significance of two samples correlation coefficients. The results showed that 66% of the variation in students' academic achievement in science is attributed to or predicted by grit. Grit significantly predicts students' academic achievement while gender and location do not moderate the predictive validity of grit on students' academic achievement in science. These findings have implications for educational foundations in the sense that students will have a solid educational foundation when they have high grit for science learning. The study recommended, among others, that students must be made to understand that persistent hard work, desire, and interest over years despite a series of failures, difficulties, challenges, setbacks, and discouragement is the key that leads to success academically and otherwise.