Predicting Students’ Academic Achievement in Physics Through Principals’ Instructional Leadership, Teachers’ Assessment Literacy and Digital Instructional Resources in Secondary Schools: Implications for Mathematics Curriculum

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which principals’ instructional leadership, teachers’ assessment literacy and digital instructional resources predicted students’ academic achievement in Physics in secondary schools in Enugu State, Nigeria, with implications for Mathematics curriculum. The study adopted a predictive correlational research design. The population comprised 12,329 Senior Secondary School II Physics students in 304 public secondary schools, from which a sample of 391 students was drawn using a multistage sampling procedure. Data were collected using the Students’ Version of the Principals’ Instructional Leadership Questionnaire (PILQ), Teachers’ Assessment Literacy Questionnaire (TALQ), Digital Instructional Resources Questionnaire (DIRQ) and Physics Achievement Test (PAT). The reliability coefficients of 0.82, 0.87 and 0.85 were obtained for PILQ, TALQ and DIRQ respectively using Cronbach Alpha, while the reliability coefficient of PAT was 0.89 using Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR-20). Data were analysed using simple and multiple regression analyses, with hypotheses tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that principals’ instructional leadership significantly predicted students’ academic achievement in Physics, accounting for 31.3% of the variance (R = .560, R² = .313, p < .001). Teachers’ assessment literacy significantly predicted achievement, explaining 43.4% of the variance (R = .659, R² = .434, p < .001), while digital instructional resources significantly predicted achievement, accounting for 27.5% of the variance (R = .524, R² = .275, p < .001). Jointly, the three predictors had a strong positive predictive relationship with students’ achievement and accounted for 67.6% of its variance (R = .822, R² = .676). The joint regression model was statistically significant, F(3, 387) = 268.645, p < .001. The study concluded that effective instructional leadership, teachers’ assessment literacy and purposeful use of digital instructional resources are important conditions associated with students’ academic achievement in Physics. The findings further suggest that these factors have implications for the implementation and evaluation of the Mathematics curriculum, particularly in relation to instructional leadership, assessment practices and digital learning environments.