Abstract:
All educators and parents wish that students, who will ultimately be the future leaders and
professionals, prosper academically. Nationally there has been a decline in academic
achievement in secondary schools as indicated by the available statistics and Nairobi City
County has not been left behind. Research indicates that attitude is considered as an important
determinant of student’s achievement in an education setting. It is therefore necessary that
learning institutions establish and clarify the cause of good academic achievement. This study
sought to examine whether variation in gender influences locus of control and attitude towards
academic achievement in public secondary school Nairobi County Kenya. The study was
grounded on the Rotter’s (1954) social learning theory. The study employed correlational
research design. The target population was 6460 form three secondary school’s students from
Nairobi City County. Stratified random sampling was used to divide the schools into three strata
namely boys boarding, girls boarding and mixed day schools. Simple random sampling was
used to select 7 public schools; 2 boys boarding, 3 girls boarding and 2 mixed day schools.
Simple random sampling was used to select 385 form three students (208 boys and 167 girls)
through proportionate allocation. The research instruments comprised of Rotter’s locus of
control scale -internal versus external (I-E) scale control, and academic attitude scale. The tools
were administered after piloting to establish their suitability. Data was analyzed using both
descriptive (percentages and mean) and inferential statistics (Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis
of variance and t-test). The findings showed that gender differences across attitude and locus of control scale scores, hence, the null hypothesis was rejected at 0.05 level of significant. The
study recommends that school counselors facilitate groups that focus on acquiring an internal
locus of control, engage in classroom guidance that focuses on the significance of internal locus
of control and discourage use external locus of control in the student. The policy makers should
come up with programs that train educators on the importance of locus of control and how to
change the unfavorable locus of control of their students.
Keywords: Locus of control and attitude, Academic achievement, Variation in gender
