A STUDY OF EFFECT OF COGNITIVE ENCOURAGEMENT ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF UNDERACHIEVERS IN SCIENCE

Abstract

The students who score below their potential on achievement test in science are labeled as underachievers in
science. Such underachievers in science may underachieve in a particular subject particularly in science. However,
opinions are divided among educationists regarding the definition and causes of underachievement. This paper
addresses how cognitive encouragement is associated with underachievement in science subject. The rationale for the
study was to identify the effect of cognitive encouragement of school environment on academic achievement of
underachievers in science and to find out the ways through which their level of achievement can be improved
particularly in science subject. The study was carried out on a randomly selected sample of 400 underachievers in
science belonging to class 9th
, selected from 16 Government and Government-Aided secondary schools of Faridabad
district of Haryana. Achievement test in science prepared and standardized by the investigator was used to assess
achievement of class 9
th underachievers in science. RPM was used to measure the intelligence of underachievers in
science. Descriptive statistics, t- test and Pearson’s correlation were used to analyze the data and to test the hypothesis.
The results revealed that there is significant correlation between academic achievement and cognitive encouragement
dimension of school environment of underachievers in science. A significant difference was found between the means of
cognitive encouragement of underachievers in science belonging to Government and Government-Aided school, which
revealed that the underachievers in science of Government-Aided schools were more cognitively encouraged in
comparison to their counterpart the underachievers in science studying in Government Schools.