Reliability assessment of learning goal setting orientation survey in Nigerian High Schools: Implications for administration

Developing a goal-setting orientation that promotes positive learning achievement among students in Nigeria can be challenging. This study assessed the reliability of the items in the Learning Goal Setting Orientation Survey (LGSOS) for secondary school students in Osun State, Nigeria, and explore the implications for school administrators. A survey research design was utilised, with a mixed-method sampling technique used to select 40 senior secondary one and two students from 20 schools, totaling 800 students. An 84-item self-designed questionnaire titled “LGSOS” was administered to collect data from the student respondents. Results indicated that the items on LGSOS had high reliability indices, with Cronbach's alpha at 0.934, Guttman Split-half at 0.789, Spearman Brown at 0.797, and Lambda at 0.952, effectively measuring goal setting orientations and learning achievement among secondary school students in Osun State, Nigeria. Additionally, the responses showed a weak positive correlation value (r = 0.12) with a p-value less than 0.05, suggesting that school administrators were not consistently implementing learning goal setting orientation as a continuous process. One key implication of the study is the necessity of school administrators to provide resources and support to help students develop and maintain their learning goal setting orientations. The findings highlight the need for further research into revisiting the goal setting orientation of high school students in Southwestern Nigeria to enhance lifelong learning achievement.