Relationship between Interest to Learn and Secondary School Students' Academic Performance in Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

Kitui County   has been consistently posting low performance    in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education from 2012 to 2018.  This   consistent low performance   has brought a need   for studies on factors influencing academic performance in the county. This study was done to establish the relationship between interest to learn and academic performance and determining whether there are   gender differences   in expression of interest to learn among the secondary school students in Kitui County, Kenya.  Correlational research design was adopted in this study. The    study was based on Vygotsky's   sociocultural theory. Random sampling was used to select a sample of 165 form three students to participate in this study. Interest to learn scale which is a sub scale of intrinsic motivation inventory scale authored by Deci and Ryan (2000) was adapted and used to collect data on learners' interest in learning. The end of term examination scores was used as learners' measure of their academic performance. The study was guided by the hypotheses that there is no significant relationship between interest to learn and students' academic performance and that there are no significant gender differences in expression of interest to learn. These hypotheses were tested using Pearson product moment correlation and independent samples t-test respectively at 0.05 level of significance.  It was found that there is significant positive relationship between interest to learn and students' academic performance (r=.881, P=.05). It was also found that there are significant gender differences in favor of boys for interest to learn.  Both hypotheses were rejected.   The researcher recommended that teachers should use technology to access resources to enrich learning environments in order to arouse learners' interest in learning.