Relationship between meta-cognitive learning skills and academic performance among orphaned secondary school students of Kenya.

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between meta-cognitive learning skills and academic performance among orphaned secondary school students of Kenya. The research was informed by Social Cognitive Theory. This study adopted an ex-post-facto research design with which a saturation sampling technique was employed. The study population constituted 300 secondary school going orphans and 23 principals. The sample of the study comprised 300 secondary school going orphans and 7 principals picked out through saturated and simple random sampling respectively. The research instruments that were used were students’ questionnaires, document analysis and interview guide for the head teachers. The validity of the research instrument was ensured through expert judgments by University lecturers in the department of psychology. To test the reliability of the instruments, the researcher employed the test-retest and correlation coefficient of 0.891 was reported. The Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient (r = .957) computed indicated that there was high positive correlation between meta-cognitive learning skills and academic achievement among orphaned secondary school among orphaned secondary school students. The study recommended that the schools should equip orphans with lifelong survival skills such as social, moral, cognitive and emotional skills to enable the orphans develop proper meta-cognitive skills in the community following discharge from the mother institution.