READING HABITS AS A PREDICTOR OF PUPILS’ TEST ANXIETY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE
Abstract
The study investigated reading habits as a predictor of pupils’ test anxiety in primary schools in Anambra State. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. Correlational research design was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprised 37,190 basic five pupils in Anambra State. A sample size of 817 pupils was draw for the study using multistage sampling procedure. Three sets of instruments: ‘‘Reading Habit Scale (RHS)” and “Test Anxiety Scale (TAS)” were used for data collection.The instruments were face validation by three experts, two from the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education and one in Measurement and Evaluation from the Department of Educational Foundations, all in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Cronbach alpha method was used for a test of internal consistencies of the instruments which yielded overall coefficient value of 0.78 for RHS and 0.80 TAS.Simple regression was used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed among others that reading habits is a strong predictor of pupils’ test anxiety in primary schools in Anambra State. It was also found thatreading habits is a significant predictor of pupils’ test anxiety in primary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that parents should set aside time at home for their children to read and prepare well for examination to reduce test anxiety.
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References
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