THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTAL MOTIVATION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SOCIAL STUDIES (A CASE STUDY OF ABEOKUTA NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OGUN STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background to the Study

Parental motivation has been shown to be an important variable that positively influences children education. More and More schools are observing the important and are encouraging families to become more involved because of the recent trend it has become essential to understand what is meant by parent involvement and in what ways it has an influence on children education. A comprehension view of insolvent is present by Epstein (1997) discussed how children learn grow through three over lapping sphere of influences family, school and community, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and collaborating with the community.

Furthermore Awanbor (2005) noted that because of poor motivation due to inadequate remuneration poor teaching environment as a result of lack of basic teaching materials, listless and unmotivated learners in the classroom, among, listless and unmotivated learners in the classroom, among others, the teachers have become the endangered species in their own profession. They no longer teach and the students in turn no longer learn. He suggested that students should be academically motivated as this will go a long way to solving most of the problems faced in education system and also increase studentsacademic performance. He further remarked that motivating students will help them to be more responsible, and have more interest in studies. He also holds that motivation of students will reduce, if not completely eliminate, high school dropout rates, low enrolment rates, truancy etc. in the view of Renchler(1992) every educator needs to be concerned about motivation. It is a quality that students, teachers, parents, school administrators and other members of the community must have, if our educational system is to prepare young people adequately for the challenges and demands of coming century. Of course, the way these various group of individuals generate and use motivation differs greatly, students need motivation to learn, parents need it to track, the educational progress of their sons and daughter teachers need it to become better teachers, the school administrators need it to ensure that every facet of the school they manage continues to improve.

Parental motivation have been posited as affecting student outcomes both directly through interaction with their children and indirectly through parental belief and perceived efficacy in providing in academic support to their children (Wetzel 1998).

It is conceivable that the longer a student stays at school, parent aspiration and student self-conception will alter in line with grades the student get from teachers in other words originally optimistic parental motivation could decline when parent received student grades that were lower than their expectation of their children. However, studies parental motivation of their grade 1-6 children achievement and did not find declining pattern of aspiration across the elementary grades level even after parent received test result consistently indicating lower achievement than expected also added were home related activities that encourage children education, home related activities that encourage children education home related activities included parent working with children of their homework, parent talking to children about school related topic, and parent talking kid on field trips, in addition, this study open ended question to give the parent and opportunity to explain more about their motivation. The various area of parental motivation were examine as they related to espstein six types of parental involvement has been shown to be an important variable in children education and more schools are trying to encourage increase to motivate their children. It therefore becomes essential to understand what types of parental motivation have the most impact on children performance more also, using various measure to examine parental motivation has been a powerful tools.

Many researchers in this area have given in conclusive and divergent opinion on outcome of parental motivation. Hence the researcher intends to find out more of the varied symbiotic relationship between parental motivation and academic performance.

1.2              Statement of the Problem

In recent time, parental motivation have been posited as affecting student outcomes both directly through interaction with their children and directly through parental beliefs and perceived efficacy in proving academic support to their children.

The research work is going to look into the sources of motivation, and its implication in the classroom, parental roles on motivation and the relationship between parental motivation and academic performance of student in social studies in Odeda Local Government.

1.3              Purpose of the Study

            The main purpose of this study is to examine and discover the relationship between parental motivation and academic performance of students in social studies in Abeokuta North Local Government.

1.      To find out why parents motivate their children in the study and to know the implication on those parent that did not motivate their children when studying in school leads to unavailability of students needs.

2.      To find out the influence of parental motivation on students as it relates to the academic performance in school especially in social studies as a function of good mental health of school subject.

3.      To find out academic self-concept of parental motivation which affect the parent positively and also the child self-concept which has a powerful effect on academic performance

1.4              Research Questions

            Based on the purpose of the study these are the following research question which are

1. How do parent motivate their children to perform well in social studies education?
2. Do children who are motivated by their parent perform better in social studies than those who are not motivated well by their parent?
3. What are the effects of home environment on the academic performance of student in social studies?
4. Is the parent close relationship with children having positive or negative impact on the performance of the children?
5. Can parents’ close relationship  affect student performance in social studies?