EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT, FAMILY TYPE AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

The present study deals with the association classroom environment and students’ academic achievement. Moreover, the study explored how classroom environments affect the academic achievement of students from varied socioeconomic background and various family types. A cross-sectional and purposive sampling technique was adopted to gather information from a sample of 448 students. Chi-square and Kendall's Tau-c (T c) tests were used to determine the direction and strength of association between and among variables. The results established that students’ academic achievement was significantly and positively associated with enough space for free and comfortable movement of students in the classroom (P<0.05, T c=0.322), proper lighting and ventilation system (P<0.05, T c=0.260), sufficient seating arrangements (P<0.05, T c=0.167), providing timely feedback to students (P<0.05, T c=0.331), and students' participation in class (P<0.05, T c=0.348). Furthermore, the results highlighted that both family type and socioeconomic status (SES) are significant contributors to students’ academic achievement. The results show that when experiencing  the same classroom environment, students from nuclear and higher socioeconomic standing families perform better academically than their counterparts.