Effect of Time Management and Monetary Rewards on Cognitive Task Accomplishment among Students of Nnamdi Azikiwe Secondary School, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

Good secondary education is critical to higher education and career paths. Many University secondary/high schools have distinguished themselves with good management leading to excellent performance of their students. However, it is worrisome why the performance of some students in such high impacting schools cannot average. In view of this problem, this study explored differences in cognitive task accomplishment as probable part of the causes; and evaluated time management and monetary rewards as factors. The design for the study was non-randomized control group, pre-test, post-test quasi experimental design utilizing analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) as statistical tool. Purposive and simple random sampling was used to select 90 students from the population of 145 JS2 students of Nnamdi Azikiwe Secondary School, Awka. Three hypotheses guided the study while the Fifteen Puzzle Cognitive Task developed by Chapman (1874) to test for spatial ability in children was adopted as the instrument for engaging the participants in cognitive task ability using two experimental and two control groups. Result indicated that groups with better time management was better in cognitive task accomplishment but monetary reward was not a strong force for better performance in cognitive task accomplishment among secondary school students. The result implies that many of the participants have difficulty solving an academic within the allowed time. It is recommended while emphasizing other aspects of scholarship for improving better performance of students, students need to be trained on time management as to improve the minimum time they take to solve an academic problem both in in-course assessments and during examinations.