"Peer influence and students' beliefs about the values of prose literature as predictors of students' achievement in prose literature-in- English. "

Abstract

"The importance of prose literature to the students’ academic and moral lives is numerous. However, the rate at which students fail this subject at the school certificate level calls for urgent attention. This has led scholars to determine the influence of many teacher factors on students’ achievement but not many have focused on students’ factors especially in prose literature hence this study. The study adopted the descriptive research design of the correlational type. 223 SSIII students of Literature-in-English from six purposively selected secondary schools in Ibadan metropolis were respondents in this study. Prose Literature-in-English Achievement Test (r = 0.83), Students’ Peer Influence Questionnaire on Prose Literature-in-English (r = 0.84) and Questionnaire on Students’ Beliefs about the Values of Prose Literature-in-English (r = 0.83) were instruments used to collect data and data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. There was no significant relationship between peer influence (β = -.082, P>.05), students’ belief (β = -.050, P>.05) and students’ achievement in prose literature. The two variables jointly explained 7% of the total variance of students’ achievement in prose literature. The relative contribution revealed that none of the variables was significant, peer influence (β = -.073, P>.05) and students’ belief (β = -.021, P>.05).Therefore, the findings cannot predict which of the variables has the highest or the lowest contribution. Based on this, it is concluded that since none of the variables was significant, some other variables could be identified for students’ underachievement in prose literature in Ibadan metropolis. "