Attitude of Secondary School Students to Science and Science Teaching
Chapter One
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The study is geared towards determining the attitude of students in secondary schools towards the teaching of science subjects in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. Science subjects are the vehicles to technological development and scientific innovation. There are other areas where good knowledge of science is a must; such areas include manufacturing nuclear power, production Medicare. The study is also expected to find out if the technology method used in imparting knowledge also affects the performance of students in Chemistry. It is also intended to find out how such problem can be overcome by making some necessary correction and by giving recommendations.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literatures that would assist in explaining the research problem and furthermore recognize the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
ATTITUDE
Attitude refers to feelings, beliefs, and behavior predispositions directed towards people, groups, ideas, or objects. It influences the behavior of the individuals. It decides how to act or behave in a particular situation. Attitude is a kind of habit. It is the usual way of doing things. Everything in an organization will get better if the attitude of everyone gets better. Successes and failures in life depend upon the attitude of the individuals. If attitudes are positive, then human relations will be positive. It is internal and challenging to change. Behavior is the way a person responds to his attitude. This response is either positive or negative, depending on how that views his position. For example, an employee who disagrees? His supervisor may ignore office protocol. Besides, an employee who dislikes another coworker or has little respect for a coworker may display this attitude by speaking harshly to this individual. Behavior can be influenced by factors beyond attitude, including preconceptions about self and others, monetary factors, social influences, and convenience. It is the actions or reactions of a person or animal in response to external or internal stimuli. It indicates how something functions or operates.
ATTITUDE OF STUDENT TOWARDS SCIENCE
The phrase “Attitude of Students towards Science and Science Education in Some Selected Schools” could be understood vividly if the main variables in the context such as “Attitude, Science, Education and Science education, are separately discussed. Science could be seen in different ways depending on the context and individual concerned. According to the 20th Century dictionary by E. M. Kirkpatrick (ed) (1983), Science is knowledge ascertained by observation and experiment. It is critically tested, systematized and brought under general principle. A. F. Abbot (1984) sees Science as the study of material things called Natural philosophy which is divided into Biological and Physical Sciences (i.e. physics and chemistry). In their book, “Science Education, N. E. Dienye and S.P.T. Gbamanja (1990: 11), defined Science as a way of knowing the facts, theories, etc and what is known. They explained this as; Certain concepts, laws, theories which at face value relate to science are what is known and how we come to know these, is the way of knowing, they added that science involves observation, collection of data, interpretation of data, summarizing the logical sequence arising from data interpretation and hypothesizing. An eminent scientist, Sir Peter Medawar (1960: 130) on his part, conceives of science as romantic/poetic and rational/analytical. The romantic and poetic conception of science is based on imaginative insight (or the intuition) of the individual concerned.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to examine the attitude of secondary school students to science and science teaching in five (5) selected secondary schools in Oredo local government. Edo state. Science students of the selected schools form the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of two hundred and sixty-six (266) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only two hundred and fifty-nine (259) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 259 was validated for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
In this study, our focus was to examine the attitude of secondary school students to science and science teaching using selected secondary schools in Oredo as a case study. The study specifically was aimed at highlighting determining the attitude of students in secondary schools towards the teaching of science subjects in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. Science subjects are the vehicles to technological development and scientific innovation. There are other areas where good knowledge of science is a must; such areas include manufacturing nuclear power, production Medicare. The study is also expected to find out if the technology method used in imparting knowledge also affects the performance of students in Chemistry. It is also intended to find out how such problem can be overcome by making some necessary correction and by giving recommendations. The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 77 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are drawn from teachers of the selected schools.
CONCLUSION
Based on the finding of this study, the following conclusions were made:
- There are significant difference between the attitude of male and female students towards the study of science because of poor equipped science laboratory.
- There are significant difference between the attitude of male and female students towards the study of science because of presence of inadequacy of qualified science teacher.
- Students attitude towards the subject affect the teaching of science.
- Lack of teaching aids in the school and non-utilization of the available teaching aids does affects teaching of science subject in school.
- There is significant difference between the attitude of male and female students towards the study of science because of age differences.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the responses obtained, the researcher proffers the following recommendations:
- That steps should be taken accordingly, to improve and developed such conditions in the school so as to develop a scientific attitude in the students.
- That Schools and teachers should launch programmes such as science exhibitions, educational tours, projects, workshops, etc.
- That parents can encourage their wards by the provision of toys that have the inherent of science activities in them at home to arouse the student’s interest in science education.
REFERENCES
- ABDULAHI, Aliyol (1978). Nigeria Integrated Science Project. A NEW LOOKS BASED ON THE NEW NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION: Science Teacher Association of Nigeria (STAN) Volume 16, No. 2.
- AKINMADE, C.J.O. and OBIOHA,E.N.(1984). The Philosophy of Science and Education in the Service of Science (‘STAN), Volume 22, No. 2, April, 1984.BAUMUND, and BORGER (1965). An Attempt to. Measure Scientific Attitudes’’ Journal ‘of Research in Science Teaching, Volume 6, p.44-46.
- Ananda, S. R., Suhandi, A., & Rahman, T. (2019). Students’ attitude toward science in junior high school after follow science learning used ILD model assisted science magic. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1157(2), 1-6. Retrieved from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10 .1088/1742-6596/1157/2/022060
- behind student attitudes towards science: The case of Hong Kong fourth-graders. International Journal of Educational Research, 92, 135- 144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2018.09.014
- Binwal, H. K. (2020). Attitude towards science: A study of 9th grade adolescent students. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 8(1), 609-615.
- BRUNNER, J. S. (1960). The Process of Education Cambridge: Harvard University Press (p.33). There is a Creed Choice in the Natural Science.
