Influence of Motivation on Students’ Academic Achievement in the Teaching of Junior Secondary Three Social Studies in Jalingo Metropolis

This study aimed to ascertain Influence of Motivation on Students’ Academic Achievement in the Teaching of JSS III Social Studies in Jalingo Metropolis Taraba State. Three research questions were raised to guide the study, and descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The target population was 3150 students covering all the 17 public secondary Schools across Jalingo metropolitan. 320 respondents were randomly sampled from five selected Junior Secondary Schools, and a 30-item research instrument, based on 4-point Likert scale, tagged Motivation for Academic Achievement Questionnaire (MAAQ), developed by the researcher and dully vetted by three specialists in measurement and evaluation, guidance and counselling and educational psychology in the Faculty of Education of the University, was used for data collection. Test-rest was used to ascertain reliability of the research instrument using Pearson Product Moment Correlation technique which yielded a coefficient of 0.67. The data collated was analysed using simple frequency count and mean, and the decision mean point was 3.00. It was concluded that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in a proper blend has the potency to improve students’ academic achievement in social studies. The study finally recommends among others that, students should be conscientised as well as be empowered to realize that they play the most important role in motivating themselves first, before anyone else; and also social studies alongside other teaching subject areas be made interesting so as to arouse and sustain students’ interests and enhance learners’ achievement motivations. Keywords: Motivation, Influence, Students’ Academic Achievement, Social Studies, Teaching, Jalingo Metropolis DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-1-05 Publication date: January 31st 202