Pages: (1-18 )
Abstract
The causes of the difference in the academic performance of students in tertiary institutions has for a long time been the focus of study among higher education managers, parents, government and researchers. The cause of this differential can be due to intellective, non-intellective factors or both. From studies investigating student performance and related problems it has been determined that academic success is dependent on many factors such as; grades and achievements, personality and expectations, and academic environments. This work uses data mining techniques to investigate the effect of socio-economic or family background on the performance of students using the data from one of the Nigerian tertiary institutions as case study. The analysis was carried out using Decision Tree algorithms. The data comprised of two hundred forty (240) records of students. The academic performance of students was measured by the students’ first year cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Various Decision Tree algorithms were investigated and the algorithm which best models the data was used to generate rule sets which can be used to analyze the effect of the socio-economic background of students on their academic performance. The rules generated can serve as a guide to educational administrators in their planning activities.
Keywords: Socio-Economic, Intellective, Family Background, Academic Performance.,