INTRODUCTION:

One of the most important discoveries of the twentieth century psychology was the discovery of the “Self”. It is the master program of one’s life. It is the bundle of beliefs that we hold about ourselves and the world at large. It is the belief structure that predicts our performance and behaviour in all walks of life. It is a person’s inner world. The “Self” of an individual is the composite of thoughts and feelings, strivings and hopes, fears and fantasies. Hence, self is a single, innate motivation and the inborn tendency to develop our abilities and potentialities from biological to psychological perspective.

Role of Self-efficacy:

The modern concept of education should be the qualitative improvement in mind, body and spirit. According to Bandura, (1997) the qualities of an individual with strong sense of Self-efficacy are:

§ They view challenging problems as the tasks they have to achieve

§ They develop curiosity to go deep into the problem to find out solution

§ They think in the innovative way

§ They get motivation to find out the new dimensions to the problems

§ They can easily recover from the setbacks

Self-efficacy works as an intrinsic motivator to endure challenges (Phillips and Lindsay, 2006). The gifted students with greater levels of intrinsic motivation score high in their academics (Clinkenbeard, 2012). Hence, it is suggested that both the teachers and parents are held responsible to encourage students to monitor their academic success themselves.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE:

Taylor (2014) identified that there were gifted students at Springfield Middle School in Williamsport, Maryland who possessed stronger levels of self-efficacy than average students. For the purpose of this study 570 students were selected. It was concluded that there was no significant effect of self-efficacy on the academic achievement of the students.

Ubhe and Bombra (2017) studied the relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement of students in middle and high school levels. The size of the sample was 125. There were 65 students from middle school of which 44 students were boys and 21 students were girls. A positive correlation between self-efficacy and achievement motivation was observed among the sample.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To find out the level of self-efficacy of secondary school students in relation to their locality.

2. To find out the impact of self-efficacy on academic achievement of secondary school students in relation to their locality.

3. To find out the relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement of secondary school students.

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY:

1. There is no significant difference on Self-efficacy of Rural and Urban Secondary school students.

2. There is no significant impact of Self-efficacy on Academic achievement of Secondary school students according to the Locality.

3. There is no significant relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement of secondary school students.

DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

1. The study is confined to Guntur district only.

2. The study was restricted to 9^th class students only.

3. The study is limited to the variable Location only.

Sample:

A sample is a small proportion of a population selected for observation and analysis. This makes it possible to draw generalization by studying a small proportion of the population. For the present study the researcher had taken up a stratified random sample of 576 secondary school students were selected.

Tools used:

Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Dr.Arun Kumar Singh and Dr.Shruti Narain was used. The scale was designed for the persons of 12 years and above age. The scale consists of 20 items. It is a five point scale with responses “Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree and Strongly Disagree.” Each item carries weight of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. And the score is reversed for negative items. The reliability of the instrument was established by using test re-test reliability method and the value was 0.82.

Statistical Techniques used:

Mean, Standard Deviation, t-test and Karl Pearson’s product moment correlation were used to study the self-efficacy of secondary school students.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION:

Hypothesis -1:

There is no significant difference on Self-efficacy of Rural and Urban Secondary school students.

Table-1: Significance of difference between Mean Scores on Self-efficacy of Secondary school students according to the Locality (N=576)

Locality	N	Mean	S.D	“t” Value
Rural	288	76.668	7.231	1.831 @
Urban	288	77.770	7.225	1.831 @

Note: @ Not Significant at 0.05 level

Mean scores of rural and urban students were 76.668 and 77.770 with S. D scores of 7.231 and 7.225 respectively. A little difference (1.102) was observed between mean scores on Self- efficacy of rural and urban students. It shows that the self perception of their own abilities were little more among the urban sample. The “t” value 1.831 was insignificant at 0.05 level of significance. It shows that there was no significant difference between rural and urban students. Hence, the null hypothesis “There is no significant difference on self-efficacy of Rural and Urban Secondary school students” was conditionally accepted. It can be seen in graphic representation in figure-1.

Figure-1: Mean Scores on Self-efficacy of Secondary school students according to the Locality

Hypothesis- 2:

There is no significant impact of Self-efficacy on Academic achievement of Secondary school students according to the Locality.

Table-2: Significance of difference between Mean Academic achievement Scores with Low and High levels of Self-efficacy according to the Locality (N=576)

S. No	Locality	Self-efficacy	N	Mean	S. D	“t” Value
1.	Rural	Low	110	302.813	43.459	11.385 **
1.	Rural	High	70	370.409	35.634	11.385 **
2.	urban	Low	102	318.490	41.907	8.834 **
2.	urban	High	82	370.036	37.145	8.834 **

Note: **Significant at 0.01 level

The mean scores of rural sample in low and high levels of Self-efficacy were 302.813 and 370.409 with the S. D values of 43.459 and 35.634 respectively. The difference between the achievement of low and high levels of Self-efficacy was 67.596. it shows that the students with high level of Self-efficacy scored comparatively high. The “t” value (11.385) was significant at both levels of significance. It shows that there was significant difference in the academic achievement between low and high levels of Self-efficacy of rural sample.

The mean academic achievement scores of low and high levels of Self-efficacy among the urban sample were 318.490 and 370.036 with the S. D values of 41.907 and 37.145 respectively. The mean difference between low and high levels was 51.546. The “t” value (8.834) was significant at both levels of significance. It shows that there was significant difference in the academic achievement between low and high levels of Self-efficacy of urban sample.

The mean achievement scores of rural and urban students were compared. The mean scores of rural and urban students in low levels of Self-efficacy were 302.813 and 318.490 and in the high levels their mean scores were 370.409 and 370.036 respectively. The mean scores of urban sample were high in the low level and the mean score of rural sample was high in the high level. This shows that there was significant difference between the achievement of rural and urban students. Hence, the null hypothesis, “There is no significant impact of Self-efficacy on achievement of Secondary school students according to the Locality” was rejected. It can be seen in graphic representation in figure-2.

Figure-2: Mean Academic achievement scores with low and high levels of Self-efficacy according to the Locality

Hypothesis-3:

There is no significant relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement of secondary school students.

Table-3: The Coefficient of Correlation between the Self-Efficacy and the Academic Achievement of the Secondary School Students

Variable	N	Correlation	Significance level
Self-Efficacy	576	0.477	0.05
Academic achievement	576	0.477	0.05

From Table-3, it is clear that correlation between Self-efficacy and academic achievement of secondary school students was 0.477 which was significant at 0.05 level. This indicates that the two variables are significantly related for this group. Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. There was significant of positive correlation between the Self-efficacy and Academic achievement of the students.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY:

1. There is no significant difference on self-efficacy of Rural and Urban Secondary school students.

2. There is a significant impact of Self-efficacy on achievement of Secondary school students according to the Locality.

3. There was significant of positive correlation between the Self-efficacy and Academic achievement of the students.

REFERENCES:

1. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.

2. Clinkenbeard, P. R. (2012). Motivation and Gifted Students: Implications of Theory and Research, Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 49 (7), pp.622-630.

3. Philips, N. and Lindsay, G. (2006). “Motivation in Gifted Students.” High Ability Studies. vol. 17, No.1, pp. 57-73.

4. Taylor, E. (2014). “The correlation between Self-efficacy and the Academic Success of Students,” A Senior thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Honors program, Liberty University.

5. Ubhe, Y. and Bombra, P. (2017). “Self-concept, Self-Efficacy and Achievement Motivation among the Middle school and High school students,” International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, Vol. 7, Issue: 6, pp. 334-348.

Received on 12.06.2019 Modified on 10.07.2019

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019; 10(4): 1066-1068.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00174.8