Correlating University Students’ Academic Attainment and Sense of Hope in Science Education: A survey from a Nigerian University

Existing contexts within the Nigerian higher education system have taken a toll on the extrinsic motivation of students. In view of the effect of these dynamics on the overall objective of science education, students’ sense of hope holds a unique significance for academic wholeness. This study employs an ex post facto research design to examine the relationship between science education students’ sense of hope and their academic achievement. The sample comprises 69 second-year students drawn from the science education programmes of a federal university in North Central Nigeria. The Trait Hope Scale and student written responses on personal motivation for science education provided data that were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test, correlation, and thematic analysis. The findings reveal overall high mean scores for sense of hope (x ̅=51.812, SD = 6.687), a weak positive correlation between hope and students’ CGPA that was not statistically significant, and broad desire for acquiring knowledge for society building. The implications of these outcomes for resilience in university education and human capacity development were discussed