Learning Goal Orientations as Correlates of Reading Comprehension Performance among Secondary School Students in Kiambu County, Kenya

A significant number of students in public day secondary schools in Kiambu County have been performing below average in national examinations. Despite the research efforts and the measures that have been put in place to address this issue, significant improvement has not been realized. The aim of this study was to investigate learning goal orientations as correlates of reading comprehension performance among secondary school students in Kiambu County. The specific objectives of this study were; to examine the relationship between learning goal orientations and reading comprehension performance, to establish if there are differences in reading comprehension performance of Form Two students with mastery and performance goal orientations and to find out if there are gender differences in goal orientation towards reading comprehension among Form Two students. This study used correlational research design. The target population was the entire 176 public sub county day secondary schools in Kiambu County in the year 2019 with a population of 8142 Form Two students. Public day secondary schools were selected using purposive sampling and the students were selected using proportionate stratified sampling. The sample size was 20 public day schools representing 11% and 860 students representing 10.6%. Goal Orientation Questionnaire and English comprehension test were used to collect data. Data analysis involved the use of Pearson correlation and t-test to test the research hypotheses with the aid of SPSS program version 23. The results showed that there was a significant positive relationship between learning goal orientation and reading comprehension performance, r (856) = .14, p .05. The results also revealed that the mean difference in reading comprehension performance based on learning goal orientation between the male and female respondents was also not statistically significant t (854) = -1.05, p > .05. Teachers, parents and all other stakeholders should train students on skills required to develop mastery learning goal orientation to enhance reading comprehension performance. The study found that there was a significant difference in reading comprehension performance of students with different learning goal orientations. The study recommends that teachers should use diverse teaching methods that cater in the different learning goal orientations to improve reading comprehension performance. It was established that there was a significant mean difference in reading comprehension performance of students with mastery and performance goal orientation. The study therefore recommends that students should be guided to develop mastery goal orientation to improve reading comprehension performance