Investigating the Nexus Between Students Social Intelligence and their Academic Motivation Towards the Learning of Biology

Abstract

The irrefutable importance of students’ psychosocial variables to their educational learning outcomes necessitated the study on the relationship between secondary school students’ social intelligence (SI) and their academic motivation (AM) towards the learning of biology in Anambra State, Nigeria. Adopting a correlational survey research design, multi stage sampling procedure was used to draw a sample of 392 Senior Secondary Year 2 (SS2) students, from the 14,512 SS2 students in Anambra Sate, used in the study. Two adapted instruments; Social intelligence scale (SIS) and Academic Motivation Inventory (AMI) were employed in data collection. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson product moment coefficient, in answering the research questions, and simple regression analysis, in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that a substantial positive and statistically significant relationship exists between students’ SI and their AM in biology. On gender, it was found that while a substantial positive relationship exists for males and a slight to fair positive relationship exists for the females, although both proved statistically significant when tested. In light of the findings, the researchers’ concluded that students’ SI positively and significantly correlates with their AM in biology, and thus recommended that Biology teachers, during the implementation process, should design classroom instructions to create atmospheres that are collaborative, interactive and friendly enough for students to express their affective learning through healthy emotional expressions, promoting their social intelligence in the long run.