ENRICHMENT TRIAD AND SCHOOL MENTORSHIP AS DETERMINANTS OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND ADJUSTMENT AMONG HIGH ABILITY SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The need for academic achievement and coping with the demands of schooling are fundamental to academic success. Typically, High Ability Secondary School Students (HASSS) have strong potential that enable them succeed academically and cope smoothly. However, reports have shown that the Academic Achievement (AA) and Academic Adjustment (AAd) of HASSS, particularly in Imo State, Nigeria are getting poorer annually. Although previous studies have examined teaching methods such as inquiry-based and collaborative learning to improve the AA and AAd of HASSS, other approaches including enrichment triad and school mentorship have been neglected. This study, therefore, examined how enrichment triad (Tiered Instruction—TI, Independent Study—IS) and school mentorship (One on One Mentorship—OM, Group Mentorship— GM and Bibliotherapy Mentorship—BM) are implicated in the AA and AAd among HASSS in Imo State, Nigeria. The study was anchored to the Wigfield and Eccles Expectancy-value Theory, while the sequential mixed methods design was adopted. The multi-stage sampling procedure was used. Twelve out of 27 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Imo State were randomly selected. Purposive sampling was used to select one public senior secondary school per LGA. The Slosson Intelligence and High Ability English Language and Mathematics Achievement Screening (HAELAS) Tests with index score of > 60% were used to select 265 HASSS. The instruments used were English Language and Mathematics Achievement Test (r = 0.84); Tiered Instruction (r = 0.86) Independent Study (r = 0.87), One on One Mentorship (r = 0.90.), Group Mentorship (r = 0.88), Bibliotherapy Mentorship (r = 0.88) and Academic Adjustment (r = 0.87) Scales. In-depth interviews were conducted with an experienced teacher of HASSS in each school. The quantitative data were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regressions at 0.05 level of significance, while the qualitative data were content-analysed. The participants‘ age was 16.26±1.18 years and 51.0% were female. The TI ( ̅ 2.81), IS ( ̅ 2.98), OM ( ̅ 3.03), GM ( ̅ 2.98) and BM ( ̅ 3.02) were high against the threshold of 2.50. The TI (r=0.29), IS (r=0.25), OM (r=0.21), BM (r=0.21) and GM (r=0.19) positively correlated with academic achievement. The OM (r=0.13), GM (r=0.39) and BM (r=0.49) positively correlated with academic adjustment, but TI and IS did not. The joint contributions of the independent variables to academic achievement (F(5; 259) = 8.64; Adj. R2 = 0.126) were significant, accounting for 12.6% of the variance. The joint contributions of the independent variables to academic adjustment (F(5; 259) = 17.25; Adj. R2 = 0.235) were significant, accounting for 23.5% of the variance. The TI (β =0.23) made significant relative contribution to academic achievement, while BM (β =0.43) made significant relative contribution to academic adjustment of HASSS. Teachers‘ lack of professional training and non-availability of appropriate teaching materials and technologies were barriers to improving academic achievement and adjustment of HASSS. Tiered instruction influenced academic achievement, while bibliotherapy mentorship influenced academic adjustment of high ability senior secondary school in Imo State, Nigeria. Teachers should take into cognisance both approaches to improve academic achievement and adjustment.