Abstract
This study investigated the effects of cognitive style, test response mode and locus of control on student??(TM)s academic achievements in junior secondary school basic science and technology using casual-comparative research of an expost-facto design. The sample consists of 200 junior secondary school year two students drawn from five randomly selected junior secondary schools in Biu educational zone, Borno State, Nigeria. Four instruments were used for data collection namely: Group Embeded Figure Test (GEFT), Locus of Control Scale (LCS), Basic Technology Achievement Test (BTAT) and Basic Science Achievement Test (BSAT). Data were analyzed to compute mean, standard deviation and Z-values. Results showed that there was a significant effect of cognitive style on students??(TM) achievement in (i) basic science (ii) basic technology. Field independent students performed better than field dependent students. For test response mode, students performed better in multiple-choice objective test than in constructed response test in each of the school subjects investigated. Also, there was a significant effect of locus of control on students??(TM) achievement in (i) basic science (ii) basic technology in favour of the internal locus of controls who recorded higher mean scores than the external locus of controls. Thus, recommendation based on the findings were made, amongst them are: Basic science and technology teachers should be implored to embrace effective teaching in the classrooms as a means for better students??(TM) achievement in science and technology.