ACADEMIC BURNOUT AS PREDICTORS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN BIOLOGY IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated academic burnout as predictors of secondary school students’ achievement in Biology in Anambra State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses tested at a 0.05 level of significance guided the conduct of the study. A correlational research design was adopted. The population of the study comprised 16,507 senior secondary year two (SS2) students offering biology in the 201 government owned co-educational secondary school in Anambra State. A sample of 1,167 students was drawn using multi-stage sampling. Academic burnout scale (ABS) validated by three experts was used for data collection. The reliability of ABS was established using Cronbach Alpha coefficients of 0.80. The student achievement scores in Biology for 2024/2025 academic session were obtained from the teachers’ score inventory and used for the study. The data collected was analyzed using simple and multiple linear regression. The findings of the study revealed among others that 0.2% of the variance in achievement in biology was predicted by students’ academic burnout. Also, academic burnout does not significantly predict students’ achievement in Biology. Based on the findings, it was recommended that biology teachers must be careful of how they implement biology curriculum in the classroom to avoid putting too much workload or pressure on the students. School should provide supportive learning environments that minimize excessive academic stress.