INFLUENCE OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST, SELF EFFICACY AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ACCOUNTING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AKWA IBOM STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Education has been widely acknowledged as the process of raising individuals or groups along mental, physical, moral, social, and vocational dimensions through a planned programme of activities and instruction as well as other forms of relevant experiences. Education therefore, could be seen as the process of changing attitude and behaviour of a person or group of persons through teaching and learning process (Udo and Akpanobong, 2017). The Nigerian education system is structured into Early Child Care and Development (0-4 years); Basic Education (5-15 years). This encompasses Pre-Primary (1 year), 6 years of Primary Education and 3 Years of Junior Secondary Education; Post-Basic Education of 3 years in Senior Secondary Education and Technical Colleges; and Tertiary Education provided in Colleges of Education, Monotechnics, Polytechnics, and the Universities (FRN, 2013).
Post-Basic Education and Career Development (PBECD) is the education received after a successful completion of ten years of Basic Education and passing the Basic Education Certificate Examination. It includes senior secondary education, higher school, and continuing education given in Vocational Enterprise Institutions (VEIs) to either Basic Education graduates who are not proceeding to Senior Secondary Schools or Senior Secondary graduates that are not proceeding to tertiary level, as a means of preparing them for the world of works, wealth creation and entrepreneurship (FRN, 2013). Secondary education is not just an indispensible bridge linking the Basic and Tertiary Education; it is the foundation for higher manpower development. It offers diversified curriculum to cater for the differences in talents, disposition, opportunities and future roles of individuals. Therefore, the proper handling of the secondary school students will yield good results at the tertiary education level in terms of character and learning. There are four types of secondary schools in Nigeria. These are: Federal Government Colleges, managed by the Federal Ministry of Education; Government Secondary Schools, managed by States Government; Mission or Islamic Secondary Schools, owned and managed by the Church or Islamic organisations; and Private Secondary Schools, owned and managed by individuals and organisations. Secondary Schools are co-educational while some are single gender schools. Students in the Senior Secondary Education level in Nigeria are expected to choose subjects either in the arts, sciences or social sciences based on the curriculum of the senior secondary education, at the second year into the senior secondary level (SS2). The National Policy on Education (FRN, 2013) states that the curriculum for senior secondary education shall consist of Science, Mathematics, Technology, and Business Studies as fields of studies. Financial accounting is one of the subjects in the field of Business Studies designed to equip secondary school students with the relevant knowledge and skills for higher education and useful living within the society.
Musa (2015) defined financial accounting as the process of recording, classifying, selecting, measuring, interpreting, summarising and reporting financial information of an organisation to the users for objective assessment and decision-making. National Examinations Council (NECO) as cited by Umar and Abdulmutallib (2017) stated that as an occupationally oriented subject that provides trained manpower for the development of a nation, the aims of teaching financial accounting in Nigerian secondary schools are to enable the students to acquire basic financial accounting skills and practices, and their applications in contemporary business activities, and to prepare them to further their study in the field of financial accounting. Mohammed (2011) stated that financial accounting aims at providing specialized instruction to prepare students for career in financial accounting field; fundamental instruction to help students assume their economic roles as consumers, workers and citizens; background instruction to assist students in preparing for other professional careers requiring advanced studies in accounting; and accounting skills for personal use in future. The objectives of financial accounting as stated by the West African Examination Council (2010) are to assess candidate’s understanding of accounting principles and the role of accounting in recording business transactions; assess the appreciation and application of the rules and functions of accounting as they apply to organisations; and assess students’ foundation for further studies in accounting. Thus, the assessment of students’ academic performance could serve as a yardstick to determining whether the objectives are being achieved or not.
Inyang (2014) stated that performance is recorded when the skills taught are successful and objectives realized on the part of the teacher and the students in the teaching-learning process. The author further stated that internal and external examinations/tests, transfer of learning as well as a permanent change in the behavior of the students consequent upon the learning process form the yardstick of measuring performance. Siegler in Sargent (2009) opined that financial accounting has conceptual and procedural aspects, and that weak learners may understand the procedure, but not the concept, or the concept, not the procedure. This could imply that those set of students with limited ability in financial accounting may not be able to grasp large quantity of numerical information in their working memory as other students and this could lead to poor academic performance. Inyang (2014) noted that in secondary schools, the trend in students’ academic performance and choice of financial accounting as a career subject have been discouraging. According to the author, this could be noticed in the low number of students offering the subject at senior secondary two class and the external examinations. The poor academic performance of students and the low number of students offering the subject especially in external examinations could result in the lack of interest in the subject by students.
INFLUENCE OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST, SELF EFFICACY AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ACCOUNTING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AKWA IBOM STATE
