Influence of Scientific Attitudes on Student’s Academic Performance in Senior Secondary School Practical Physics
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the study
- To determine the perceptions of students about practical physics in public secondary schools in Lagos state.
- To examine the factors influencing student attitudes towards Practical physics
- To investigate how student’s scientific Attitudes affect their learning and performance in practical physics
- To seek recommendations on how to improve students attitudes towards learning and performance of practical physics.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Attitudes and their formation
Attitudes are psychological orientations developed as a result of one’s experiences which influences a person’s view of situations, objects people and how to respond to them either positively or negatively or favourably or unfavourably (Mensah et al, 2013). Attitude is an organization of beliefs feelings and behavioural tendencies towards an object (Vaughan& Hogg, 2005).Attitudes are positive or negative views about a person, object, idea or situation which influences individual choice of action and responses to challenges (Marianne & Elaine, 2005). Attitudes have three interrelated qualities or components which vary in direction and degree or strength.
This include the; Emotional components – how we feel; A cognitive component – thoughts and beliefs; A behavioural components – action, experiences (Maio & Haddock, 2010).
The social learning theories by Bandura postulate that individuals acquire attitudes through observing imitating and modeling the behaviors of others. They therefore form through direct experience with models, object or issues or ideas we interact with. They are learnt attributes which affect our behavior. Research has it that people behave in accordance with their attitudes under the conditions that; the attitudes are as a result of personal experience; that one is expecting a favorable outcome or where the model is attractive, popular or successful (Zimmerman, 2007). A student can develop positive attitude towards Practical physics because he or she learns to associate positive experiences or events with it. Also, positive reinforcement creates room for the formation of positive attitude for Practical physics (Mensah et al, 2013).
Student’s scientific Attitudes towards practical physics
Attitude towards practical physics presents a disposition towards an aspect of practical physics that has been acquired by an individual through his or her beliefs and experiences but which could be changed (Eshun, 2004). Some authorities regard attitude towards Practical physics as just a like or dislike for Practical physics, while others extend the meaning to embrace beliefs, ability, and usefulness of Practical physics. For Zan and Martino (2007), attitude towards Practical physics is just a positive or negative emotional disposition towards Practical physics. Considering attitude towards Practical physics from multidimensional perspectives, it interprets students attitude towards Practical physics as a more complex scenario characterized by the emotions that one associates with Practical physics, ones beliefs about Practical physics and how one behaves towards Practical physics (Hart, 1989). This attitudes if negative is reflected by the fact that students may shy away and would always try to avoid practical physics tasks. A positive attitude towards the subject is an important educational outcome that should be nurtured regardless of the performance level of the learners who should be helped in order to bring out their best abilities. They influence our social thought and help us to organize and evaluate stimuli into pleasant or unpleasant or negative or positive or useful or not useful. Attitudes have a strong effect on behaviour which helps in understanding and predicting peoples’ behaviour in a wide range of contexts. Attitudes though not directly observable are inferred from observable responses and behaviours. They are elicited by certain stimuli and gradually get established into a consistency or a tendency (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
Research design
This study adopted a descriptive survey design as it dealt with people’s views and hence was relevant to the study area. According to Grazino and Raulin (2000), descriptive survey method is often used to study people’s feelings, thinking and attitudes about specific aspects hence was relevant for this study as attitudes could not be directly measured or observed but were inferred from certain cues which depicted the implicit nature of students characteristics. The research aimed at capturing some of the student beliefs and perceptions which signified attitudes towards practical physics. The data was obtained through the use of student questionnaires representing various attitude variables or themes. The students response was organized and analyzed both in qualitative and quantitative approaches then summed up in a descriptive manner according to the themes.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS, INTERPRETATION AND
DISCUSSION
Profile of Respondents
A total of 140 questionnaires were successfully filled and collected for this study. The 140 respondents formed 20% of the Form Four class populations in the schools considered. All the respondents were form four students aged between 16-20 years. Majority of the respondents were males forming 63% while the female respondents were 37%.
Perception of Students towards Practical physics
The study sought to determine the perception of students towards practical physics as a subject whether favourable or not favourable. The items from the questionnaires were summarized with learner responses as Yes, No or Not sure. Percentage figures obtained were used in making comparisons and conclusions. The attitude test results obtained from the study are summarized in Table 4.1.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter presents a summary of the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the study. The chapter also has some research gaps identified and recommendations for further research.
Summary of the findings
Perception of the students about practical physics
The findings of the study indicate that the students have a positive attitude towards practical physics. The findings show that the students like practical physics, enjoy and look forward for practical physics lessons. These positive attitudes are key to providing conducive environment for learning as the students learn better if they enjoy what they are learning however, this is not reflected in their performances in practical physics.
Factors influencing students attitude towards practical physics
The study established three factors which influence student’s scientific attitude:
The students’ perceptions and beliefs were found to influence their attitudes towards practical physics. The study found that students perceived practical physics positively. They agreed that practical physics was widely applicable and useful in their future careers. Majority did not perceive practical physics as a difficult subject and could not fail to pursue it even if it was optional. Hence perception is among the strongest predictor variables affecting students’ performance in practical physics.
The second factor influencing student’s scientific Attitude towards practical physics is the learning ability and competence in practical physics as a subject. Although the students agreed that learning practical physics involved a lot of memorization of facts and formulae which were difficult to grasp, they confessed they could get good grades after working hard. The learning abilities and positive minds of the students enabled them to view the subject as something learnable, achievable and were related to most of the environmental activities. The beliefs about their competencies affected their attitudes towards practical physics as the students felt that not everyone can be good in all subjects.
The third factor which affects practical physics is the previous performance and rankings in practical physics. The study found that practical physics was the least performed subject in schools and this had given students a dull perception that it was normal to fail in practical physics. This creates a myth that practical physics is a subject which is normally scored poorly. This shows that previous performance in practical physics negatively affected student’s scientific Attitude towards practical physics.
Effects of the attitudes on the student performance in practical physics
The other objective of the study was to establish the effect of attitudes on practical physics performance. It was established that;
Attitudes affected the effort and behaviour of students towards practical physics in various ways. students who liked and enjoyed practical physics are expected to be motivated, could complete all the assignments, do extra work, pay attention to the teachers in class, could not miss a lesson and were always prepared for practical physics lessons regardless of the presence or absence of the teacher. A good percentage of students were in contrary to this expectation which is reflected in their dismal performances. They fail to complete the assignments and do practice which makes it difficult for them to perform.
Attitude determines students’ ability, willingness to learn, choice of action and response to challenges. It determines the level of engagement, interest, personal effort without which one can hardly perform. Students are aware of what it takes to perform in physics yet they lack commitment. They know if they work hard they can improve but would constantly fail to do the necessary.
Attitude also influences the confidence level of students in practical physics. The study found that students were positive of getting good grades in their final NECO exams, had confidence in tackling mathematical related problems and most would pursue practical physics related courses in future which reflect high level of confidence of students in practical physics. However, on the contrary the positive attitude of the students does not match their performance as most of them scored dismally in practical physics.
Conclusions of the study
The study concludes that:
Students generally have a favourable attitude towards practical physics. The student like, enjoy and look forward to the practical physics lessons. Thus, there is a positive and good attitude towards practical physics as a learning subject by the secondary school students in Lagos State. The students do not hate the subject as is widely thought but exhibit favourable attitudes towards practical physics. Though Positive attitudes alone may not significantly predict good performance as shown by the students’ grades, there are other mediating factors including student effort and commitment that connect attitude and performance without which attitude alone may not reflect performance.
The attitude towards practical physics is influenced by the perception and beliefs about practical physics, learning abilities and competence in practical physics and the previous performance and rankings in practical physics in schools where the later poses a negative influence. The effect of attitude of students on learning and performance is reflected in terms of the effort and behaviour of students towards practical physics through motivation, completion of assignments, and attention in class and lesson attendance hence low level of engagement which makes it difficult to perform in practical physics.
The attitudes of the students also influence their confidence level in practical physics mostly in terms of their feeling about getting good grades, tackling mathematical tasks and their desire to pursue practical physics related courses in the future.
Though the students are aware of the importance of practical physics and what it takes to achieve in the subject, they lack commitment which limits them of their future career opportunities due to dismal performance in the subject. This may also imply that the educational goals are not being achieved.
Students attribute their performances in practical physics mostly to the school environments, abilities, future interest and personal effort and less on social constructs (parents, teachers and peers).
Recommendations of the study
The study makes the following recommendations:
- The school administration should advantageously make use of the learners’ positive attitude to create a strong inclination and culture of practical physics as a subject in secondary schools where the students can score favourably like in any other subject.
- The curriculum designers and the teachers should articulate well on the usefulness and applicability of practical physics in general so that students create positive minds towards the subject and subsequently strive to improve in the subject.
- The Ministry of education, teachers and parents should ensure that performance of practical physics among students is improved so as to dislodge the negative attitude and create a positive one on performance of practical physics in secondary schools.
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