EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES ON MATHEMATICS SELF-CONCEPT, ACHIEVEMENT AND CAREER ASPIRATION OF STUDENTS ASSOCIATED WITH BIG-FISH-LITTLE-POND IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OYO STATE

Abstract

Students known as Big-Fish-Little-Pond (BFLP) are those with higher achievement scores in primary schools which decreases overtime in highly competitive secondary schools. The BFLP overtime decline performance has been shown to result into low students’ motivation, self-concept and career aspiration; thus becoming a major concern to parents and policy makers. Previous intervention studies have focused more on regular students than on the BFLP students. This study, therefore, was designed to determine the effects of psychological therapies (Cognitive Behavioural Group Therapy- CBGT and Solution Focused Brief Therapy- SFBT) on mathematics self-concept, achievement and career aspiration of BFLP students in Oyo State, Nigeria. Moderation effects of Socio-economic Background (SeB) and motivation were also examined. Festinger Theory served as framework, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design using 3x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. Simple random sampling technique was used to select two senatorial districts and two Local Government Areas (LGAs) from each senatorial district. Three schools which had between eight and 12 students or more scoring less than five deviation in the two mathematics self-concept tests, students’ mathematics achievement test and their common entrance records were randomly selected from each LGA. In each adopted school, minimum of eight or / and maximum of 12 students were randomly selected and assigned to CBGT (40), SFBT (45) and control CAU (41),while treatment lasted eight weeks. Instruments used were Mathematics Achievement Test (r=0.68); Parental SeB; Score Record Template and Mathematics Self-concept (r=0.94), Students’ Motivation (r=0.92) and Student Career Aspiration (r=0.88) scales.Data were analysed using ANCOVA at 0.05 level of significance. There were significant main effects of treatment on students’ mathematics self-concept (F(2,113)=230.56; ᶯ2=0.80), students’ mathematics achievement (F(2,113)=31.47; ᶯ2=0.36) and students’ career aspiration (F(2,113)=11.97; ᶯ2=0.18). Participants in SFBT group had the highest mathematics self-concept mean score (49.37), followed by CBGT (47.54) and CAU (30.58) groups. Participants in SFBT obtained the highest mean score in students’ mathematics achievement (11.74), followed by CBGT (6.27) and CAU (6.01) groups. Students in SFBT had the highest career aspiration mean score (47.56), followed by CAU (46.97) and CBGT (44.23) groups. There was no significant main effect of SeB on students’ mathematics self-concept, achievement and career aspiration, while motivation had a significant main effect on students’ mathematic achievement (F(1,113)=4.44; ᶯ2=0.04). Students who were highly motivated obtained the higher mean score (8.75) than their counterparts who were not motivated (7.27). Motivation had a significant main effect on career aspiration (F(1,113)=44.82; ᶯ2=0.29) in favour of highly motivated students (48.03) than those that were not motivated (44.48), but not significant on students’ mathematics self-concept. The two-way and three-way interaction effects were not significant. Solution focused brief and cognitive behavioural group therapies improved mathematics self-concept, achievement and career aspiration of junior secondary students associated with Big-Fish-Little-Pond in Oyo State, Nigeria. These therapies should be adopted to improve Big-Fish-Little-Pond learning outcomes.