The study investigated behavioural characteristics as determinants of secondary school students’ achievement in Biology in Ondo state, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research was adopted in this study. The population for this study consisted of all S.S.S. 3 students in 241 secondary schools in Ondo State. The sample for the study consisted of 200 S.S.S. 3 students drawn from 10 public secondary schools in Ondo State. The sample was selected using multistage sampling procedure. Two instruments tagged Behavioural Characteristics Questionnaire (BCQ) and Student Biology Achievement Inventory (SBAI) were used to collect relevant data for the study. The instruments for the study were validated by experts in the area of Tests and Measurement. The reliability of BCQ was determined by finding the internal consistency which yielded reliability co-efficient of 0.813. The data collected through the instruments were analyzed using inferential statistics of multiple regression and t-test analysis. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that behavioural characteristics of students such as attitude, self-concept, self-efficacy, self-perception and interest significantly predicted their achievement in Biology with self-efficacy being the highest contributor while self-concept was the least contributor. In addition, male and female students share the same behavioural characteristics in the learning of Biology. It was recommended among others that Biology teachers should carefully identify students with high self-efficacy and encourage them, while those with low self-efficacy should be guided appropriately.

Keywords: Attitude, Self-Concept, Self-Efficacy, Self-Perception, Interest, Achievement,

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