PEER COLLABORATION AS CORRELATES OF STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TO STUDY SCIENCE SUBJECTS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN TUBAH, MEZAM, NORTHWEST REGION OF CAMEROON

This study looked at peer collaboration as Correlates of Students’ Motivation to study science subjects in Public Secondary Schools in Tubah, Mezam Division of the Northwest Region of Cameroon. To achieve this, two specific research objectives were formulated which were to find out how peer collaboration specifically; peer monitoring and peer reward correlates students’ motivation to learn science subjects. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive design. With the use of random sampling a sample of a 264 students was selected from three secondary schools of Mezam division. Data was collected using a structured 4 Likert type scale questionnaire, with an internal consistency of 0.871, using the Cronbach alpha Reliability test. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, where descriptive statistics such as the mean and standard deviations, frequencies and percentages were used to answer the research questions while linear regression was used as the inferential tool to verify the null hypothesis. Findings from the first research question identified that there exists a significant effect of peer monitoring on students’ motivation to learn mathematics at 0.01 level of significance and 20.20% of the variance in students’ motivation to learn mathematics can be accounted for by their involvement in peer monitoring activities while results from the second research question indicated that peer reward has a significant effect on students’ motivation to learn mathematics at 0.01 level of significance and 8.2% of the variance in students’ motivation to learn mathematics could be accounted for by engagement in peer reward activities. Based on these findings it was concluded that team work has a significant effect on students’ motivation to learn mathematics in secondary school and it was therefore recommended among other things that teachers should provide opportunities for, peer monitoring, and peer rewards during mathematics classes, while further studies should explore the level of teachers’ implementation of group work practices.