The Journal of Science Education (JOSCED) publishes peer-reviewed research on the teaching and learning of the sciences at secondary and tertiary level. The journal welcomes empirical and theoretical studies in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and integrated science education, covering instructional strategy, curriculum, assessment, laboratory practice, educational technology and teacher development, with particular attention to Nigerian and wider African classrooms.
Published by the Department of Science Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu, Nigeria. The journal was formerly titled Journal of Science and Computer Education.
The poor secondary school students' academic achievement in Physics as shown in the literature over the past decades has been attributed to poor acquisition of mathematical competencies that can enable them to do well in practical Physics. The need to examine mathematical competencies as determinants of Physics achievement becomes necessary for sustainable education. The study which adopted an ex-post facto research design was carried out in Nsukka education zone of Enugu state during the 2021/2022 academic session. The sample size for the study was 388 senior secondary school I Physics students in 6 randomly sampled single-sex secondary schools. Trained research assistants used interview results to fill the mathematical competency in practical Physics questionnaire (MCPPQ) for each student. Grades spreadsheet was used to collect students' senior secondary certificate examination result in Physics. Cronbach's alpha, which yielded a value of.85 was used to measure the internal consistency reliability of MCPPQ. Beta-weight was used to answer all the research questions while Chi-square statistic was used to test the hypotheses at.05 level of significance and 425 degrees of freedom. The result of the study as perceived by the students indicated that basic practical Physics mathematical operations, graphing skills, generation of readings from equations derived from experimental setup and deductions from the graph in decreasing magnitude positively influenced Physics achievement in external examination. Male and female students' models were similar in terms of path coefficients in the model. Hence, it was recommended that Physics teachers should improve upon students' mathematical competencies in practical Physics to boost their Physics achievement.
In academic sector, they are high rate of infectious diseases like measles, diarrhea, coronavirus, monkey-pox, skin disease and genital infections, the occurrence of these infectious diseases came as a result of students' negligence in practicing of personal hygiene. Therefore, this study examined knowledge and practice of personal hygiene among secondary school students in Enugu State. Two specific purpose and research questions guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted of 9900 secondary school students in Enugu State. 495 students made up the sample for this study. The researcher used simple random sampling technique. Specifically the reliability coefficients obtained from data generated with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) using Kuder Richardson formula and Cronbach's alpha reliability for the internal consistency reliability, shows knowledge of personal hygiene (.85) and practice of personal hygiene (.79) respectively. A 22-items structured questionnaire tagged 'Knowledge and Practice of Personal Hygiene Questionnaire (KPPHQ)" was used for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. The questionnaire was rated on 4-point scale of very great extent (VGE), great extent (GE), low extent (LE) and very low extent (VLE). The decision rule was that any item that has 50% and above is regarded as knowledgeable (K) while items below 50% is regarded as not knowledgeable (NK). For the personal hygiene, any item mean from 2.50 above is regarded as high while items mean below 2.50 is regarded as low. The findings showed that, majority of students have adequate knowledge of personal hygiene with the grand percentage of (69.8%) and low practice of personal hygiene with the grand mean of (2.0). The study conclude that: students are very knowledgeable of personal hygiene, but putting their knowledge into physical practice are seen as the major problems that most students face, which usually contribute to the risk of infectious diseases such as covid-19, genital infections, dental health challenges and diarrhea. The study recommend that students' knowledge as it regards to personal hygiene practice should always be appraised by the classroom teacher, for the purpose of motivating those ones that have low knowledge of personal hygiene and the school management should provide all the prerequisite personal hygiene materials for the facilitation of its practice.
Students' consistent poor achievements in physics have been attributed non-availability and non-utilization of ICT resources among others. This study therefore, sought to investigate the Availability and Utilization Status of ICT Resources for Physics Education in Colleges of Education in Enugu State. The area comprised all the 8 accredited public and private Colleges of Education in Enugu State. Census survey research design was adopted for this study. No sampling was involved due to the manageable size of the population (30 physics lecturers: 21 males and 9 females). Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire, developed by the researcher, validated by three experts and trial tested on 7 physics education lecturers. The researcher administered the instrument to the physics lecturers in the public and private Colleges of Education in Enugu State. The responses were collected and Kuder-Richardson's formula-20 (K-R-20) (availability status) and Cronbach alpha (utilization status) statistics were employed to compute the internal consistency estimate of the items. The reliability coefficient obtained was 0.96, which shows that it is reliable. Research questions were answered using mean, and standard deviation. The results of the study indicated that ICT resources are available but fairly utilized by the physics lecturers for teaching and learning Physics in Colleges of Education in Enugu State. It was recommended that lecturers in the Colleges of Education in the state should make up their minds to embrace and harness the new learning systems which ICT tools brought by the emerging technologies for improving teaching and learning outcomes in schools and colleges.
The students' consistent low performance in internal and external examinations undermined the efficacy of chemistry teachers' methods of instruction. Thus, the purpose of the research is to find out how inquiry-based learning can impact students' academic achievement in stereochemistry in Enugu education zone. The study was guided by two research questions and three research hypotheses. The study employed a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design. 4,532 SS2 Chemistry students made up the study's population. A combination of random and purposive sampling procedure was used to select 96 students. While the control group received instruction via lectures, the experimental group was taught using an inquiry-based teaching strategy. The Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) was the instrument used for data collection, and its reliability index was evaluated using Kuder-Richardson's formula-20 which yielded coefficient of 0.84. The mean, standard deviation, and analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data. The findings demonstrated that students exposed to the inquiry-based teaching strategy outperformed their peers who received instruction via lectures. For improved students' achievement, it was recommended that Chemistry teachers should use inquiry based teaching strategy when teaching chemistry.
The accepted general notion that chemistry is abstract in nature as it is presented via mathematical formulars, structures and arrows, goes to a long extent in being perceived difficult by the students, which in turn hinders their academic achievement and interest in the subject. Hence, the study investigated difficult concepts in chemistry as perceived by students and teachers in senior secondary schools in Agbani Education Zone of Enugu State. Two research questions guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population for the study comprised 1462 senior secondary school three (SS3) chemistry students and 45 chemistry teachers in public secondary schools within Agbani Education Zone. A sample size of 359 (314 students and 45 teachers) was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled Difficult Chemistry Concepts Questionnaire (DCCQ), which was designed by the researcher. The instrument was divided into two sections namely: A and B. Sections A was based on the respondents' biodata while B consisted 46-item statements structured to elicit information from the respondents. The instrument was validated by three experts. In order to determine reliability of the instrument, the researcher administered 30 copies of the questionnaire on 28 SS3 chemistry students and 2 teachers in two schools in Enugu Education Zone to determine the overall reliability index of the instrument. Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient formula was used to estimate the reliability of the instrument, and an overall reliability coefficient of.75 was established. The data were collected by the researcher with the help of two research assistants. The collected data were analyzed using mean scores and standard deviation. The decision rule for interpreting the results was based on the values of the calculated means. Item responses on each of the research questions were considered high and difficult when the mean is 2.50 and above, and low and not difficult when less than 2.50. The results of the analysis revealed that the chemistry concepts in senior secondary school that teachers and students perceived as difficult are: chemical combination, mass volume relationship (stoichiometry), acid, base reaction, oxygen and its compounds, among others. The study also revealed that there was a significant difference between male and female chemistry students as well as teachers in their mean difficulty in some concepts. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that: teachers and students should devote greater attention to the teaching and learning of these difficult concepts, and workshops
A responsive curriculum is a curriculum that is relevant to the current and anticipated needs, problems and aspirations of the learners. Unfortunately, the curriculum that is in use does not address the anticipated needs, problems and aspirations of the learners, or it is not responsive enough to meet the technological needs of the society. Therefore, a concerted effort and a total overhauling towards our education policy is imminent at this point in time. The present curriculum enthrones western culture in our land, thereby, undermining the culture and value of different states in this nation. Our educational system and value have been raped and murdered on the altar of modernization. The Nigeria education system is in trouble; and every day it continues to dwindle and deteriorate in essence, structure and purpose. The extent of damage that has been meted on our education is too alarming. The work revealed that in order to remedy the illness with Nigeria curriculum, there is need for the adoption of responsive curriculum development and employ this curriculum strictly in Nigerian education system. It showed that amongst other features, responsive curriculum should be: integrated and interdisciplinary, authentic, learner-centered and oriented to real life situations, utilizing materials from the learner's culture, assisting the learner to develop critical thinking ability. It also revealed that for the attainment of Nigeria's development through the instrumentality of curriculum, it is imperative that curriculum designers develop a responsive curriculum whose adoption in the Nigerian schools will develop valuable human capital that is needed for economic growth and human development. In view of the study, the researchers recommended that: curriculum experts should design a curriculum that is responsive to the current needs, aspirations and problems of the people, and in line with technological advancement, Government should motivate teachers through increase in salary and allowances so as tO encourage them in putting in their best in harnessing the potentials of our future generation and teachers should prepare their teaching contents/objectives by effectively utilizing materials/ideas from learner's culture.
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