STUDY SKILL DEFICIT AND PROCRASTINATION AS PREDICTORS OF BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENT’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE IN SOUTH EAST PUBLIC TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS.

Abstract

This paper investigated study skill deficit and procrastination as predictors of business education student’s attitude towards examination malpractice in South East public tertiary institutions. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. Correlational research design was employed in the study. The population of the study was 1337 business education students from public tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria. A sample of six hundred and sixty-eight (668) respondents were chosen from the population using stratified random sampling. Three sets of instruments titled “Questionnaire on Study Skill Deficit (QSSD), “Questionnaire on Procrastination (QP) and Questionnaire on Examination Misconduct (QEM)’’ were constructed by the researcher, validated by the experts and used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability co-efficient which yielded an overall coefficient of 0.83. A total of 668 questionnaires were administered to respondents through personal contact  with the help of five research assistants. At the end of the exercise, a total of 648 copies of questionnaire were successfully retrieved. Data collected from the respondents were analyzed using Simple Regression Statistical method at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that study skill deficit and procrastination predict examination malpractice among business education students at moderate level of 67.6% and 68.1% respectively. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the students should learn to keep study time table so that they can put their time to better use, Lecturers/Teachers should assist the students by engaging them in meaningful activities  they cannot avoid so that the problem of procrastination can be avoided, institutions should reinforce their guidance and counseling department in order to assist students with study skill deficit problem to adjust properly as programme of guidance is an integral component of the curriculum