Project Abstract

<p>                <b> Abstract
</b>&nbsp;</p><p>In this study an attempt was made to compare and find the relationship between students’ achievement in theoretical and practical aspects of Mock Senior School Certificate Examinations in Chemistry. The study adopted a correlational research design which specifically, compared recorded scores of students in theoretical and practical aspects of chemistry MOCK Examination of 2007-2009 academic sessions. Five research questions and five hypotheses guided the study. A total of 1200 SS3 students drawn from twelve secondary schools within Potiskum education zone of Yobe state were used. The students were drawn through purposive sampling technique. Eight male schools and four female schools were used for the study. Mean and standard deviation of scores were used to answer the five research questions while Pearson Product-Moment Correlation analysis was used to test the five null hypotheses at p&lt; 0.05. The result showed that students achieved better in the theoretical aspect than in the practical in the MOCK Examination in Chemistry 2007 – 2009 in Potiskum Education Zone of Yobe State. It also indicated that Gender and Location had differential effects on achievement of students in Chemistry Examination. The male students achieved more significantly better than their female counterparts in both theoretical and practical aspects. The study revealed that students in the urban area achieved more significantly better than their counterparts in the rural area in both theoretical and practical aspects. It also revealed that there were no significant relationships between students’ achievement in the theoretical and the practical aspects of the examination. Thus it was concluded that students do not have enough laboratory experience to cope with the demand of the external practical examination in Chemistry. Therefore it was recommended that Chemistry teachers should give more priority to practical experiments as part of instruction in order to improve students’ understanding of practically related concepts. Theoretical and practical instructions should be given side by side. <br></p>

Project Overview

<p><b>1.0 INTRODUCTION&nbsp;</b></p><p><b>1.1 Background of the Study</b>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;Science in general and Chemistry in particular plays a significant role in the economic development of a nation. This underscores the reasons for emphasizing the promotion of Science as the means for achieving technological development in many countries. Striving for development in science and technology becomes imperative as it serves as a driving wheel for economic empowerment of the countries. Therefore, for a country to be economically viable, it must strengthen its science and technology programmes in content as well as in teaching and learning at secondary schools level (Gero, 2001). In Nigeria, in order to achieve this economic objective, impetus have been given to the implementation of the ratio 60:40 admission policy in favour of science subjects in institutions of higher learning. Most of the educational objectives in Nigeria can be achieved through effective science education. Hence, science education is given priority because it will help in providing the essential manpower for the development of the country in areas such as Agriculture, extraction and processing of mineral resources, industrial production of consumer goods, Medicine and Pharmacy. Of all the science subjects, Chemistry is vital for preparing scientists and technologists both at middle and upper manpower levels. Chemistry is one of the basic sciences which are essentially the pre-requisites for technological breakthrough. Hence, the need for effective Chemistry education in Nigeria appears very crucial and therefore, demands considerable attention. For instance, Chemical Technologists and Technical workers are needed in all those Chemistry-related fields mentioned above. In the higher manpower requirement, 18 experts are needed in chemical engineering. These fields cannot be effectively studied without Chemistry as it serves as pre-requisite to them. This implies that Chemistry is an important science subject needed for higher education in virtually all the science related professions such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Agriculture, Engineering, food and nutrition. So these aspects of the importance of Chemistry explain why schools, governments, students and parents are worried over students’ poor achievement in Chemistry in senior school certificate examination. Amaefule (2001) asserted that “chemistry is a science subject from which all science and technology disciplines draw sustenance”. However, students do not perform well in Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) in chemistry, (Akalonu, 1998, and Eze, (2000). In fact (Njoku, 1994; Balogun, 1995; Akinyele, 1997; and WAEC, 1998) also observed that Chemistry as a subject, suffers poor academic performance by students especially at the Senior School Certificate Examination level. For instance, Chemistry results, at the SSCE level between 1999 and 2002, in terms of passes at credit (1-6) levels has been very low. In 1999 out of 227,696 candidates who registered and sat for chemistry only 31.08% representing 70,767 passed, in 2000 out of 201,396 candidates who registered and sat for SSCE chemistry only 31.38% representing 63,198 passed, also in 2001 out of 206,446 candidates only 36.25% representing 74,837 passed and in 2002 out of 246,228 candidates only 25.38% representing 62,493 of the students who registered and sat for SSCE in chemistry passed with grades at credit (1-6) levels respectively (WAEC Statistical Report, 1999-2002). These percentages were the only candidates who could be admitted into institutions of higher learning to read Chemistry and other courses that require Chemistry. The implication of a student failing Chemistry at the ordinary level is that he/she will not be 19 enrolled for science based courses at institutions of higher learning. The WAEC Chief Examiner’s Reports between 1999 and 2005 also showed that the percentage of passes in Chemistry is low across Nigeria, thereby affecting the general performance of most candidates who sat for Senior School Certificate Examination over the years. The chief Examiner’s reports (1999) also indicated that “the poor performance of students in science subjects has assumed a dangerous dimension. In the light of this, science educators need to seek suitable ways of tackling the current mass failure if they are to halt the drifts of students to arts and social science subjects”. Particularly, in Chemistry paper 1 (practical), WAEC Chief Examiner’s reports (2002) again showed that Chemistry students’ poor performance in this aspect over the years arises from students’ poor knowledge of fundamental principles and procedures especially in qualitative analysis and lack of exposure to laboratory techniques.&nbsp;</p><p>It is indicated that the poor performance of the candidates was due to among others: - inability to adhere strictly to instructions; manipulation of titer values to agree with that of Supervisor; presentation of wrong tests, on solids instead of aqueous solutions, wrong observations and inferences; inability to link theoretical knowledge with actual practical work; poor calculations. WAEC Chief Examiner’s Reports (2002) also showed that Chemistry students’ poor performance in Chemistry paper 2 (theory) over the years, arises from students’ having difficulties in tackling questions which required explanation, making logical deductions, calculations, plotting of graph, energy profile diagrams, distinguishing between nuclear and ordinary chemical reactions, chemical symbols and formulae. They lost marks for among other reasons: Inability to write balanced equations with the state symbols; non-adherence to 20 rubrics; poor knowledge of basic chemical principles; poor communication skills; wrong spellings. From the above discussion it is understood that the Chemistry examination constitutes two aspects; the theory aspect and the practical aspect. It is also understood that students do fail in Chemistry examination, but it is not yet clearly understood in which of the two aspects of the examination do they have serious problems? Is it in theoretical aspect or in practical aspect? Or, will it be in both aspects of the examination? These are some of the questions this study is proposing to address. Chemistry is offered at the senior secondary school level, from senior secondary one (SS1) to senior secondary three (SS3) classes, as a single subject. The senior secondary school students had done Integrated Science which is to prepare them for offering Chemistry at SS level. However, the above assertions have shown that the SS students’ achievement in Chemistry has not been encouraging. This might have been partly responsible for the slow pace of scientific and technological development in Nigeria. This slow pace according to Iloputaife (2000) is attributable to a number of factors which include lack of facilities, teachers’ non-seriousness/dedication to work, lack of interest on the part of the students while some may be related to the state of science education enterprise in Nigerian schools. Durum (2003) observed that one of the problems found in science teaching in Nigeria is that science is presented dogmatically in most schools which students find difficult to relate to real world. Most of our secondary schools’ laboratories are ill-equipped and as a result students are denied that feeling of participation in the reality, which practical classes and demonstration provide. All other factors put apart, this is enough to make students perform poorly in examination. 21 Onwioduokit (1996), looking at the position of Chemistry education in Nigeria observed that a great majority of the currently serving school teachers are not qualified to teach Chemistry at the secondary school level. The type of chemistry teachers we have, in Nigeria might have been responsible for the poor performance of students in the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and of course the lack of progress in technology. Studies on variables of teaching found poor performances of s tudents to be as a result of poor classroom teaching and students’ attitude to school (Okebukola, 2005). <br></p><p><b>1.2 Statement of Problem&nbsp;</b></p><p>The teaching of Chemistry has two components. The theoretical component is meant to train the students properly in the concepts, theories and principles of Chemistry. There is also the practical laboratory based component, which is intended to enable students undertake laboratory work necessary for explaining practically their understanding of the theories, ideas, principles and concepts of Chemistry they were taught theoretically. Both the theory and the practical work are important in the overall study and assessment of students in Chemistry because no one component is more important than the other. This is why it is important to compare and document the relationship between theoretical and practical aspects in the overall achievement of senior secondary school students in the study of Chemistry in Nigeria with particular emphasis on Yobe State. An extensive review of literature on the study of the theoretical and practical laboratory components of achievement in Chemistry showed that such literature is scanty and none have been reported for Yobe State. The literature also indicated that students do fail in chemistry, but it is not understood in which aspect (theoretical or practical) they fail worst. The literature also indicated that practical works are mostly delayed until SS II or SS III. Hence the study filled the gap of paucity of empirical data by comparing the scores of students in theoretical and practical aspects to find their relationship as they affect students overall achievement in senior secondary school Certificate in Chemistry in MOCK 2007-2009 in Yobe State. <br></p><p><b>1.4 Purpose of the study</b>&nbsp;</p><p>This study compared and found the relationship between students’ achievement in theoretical and practical aspects of Senior Secondary School Examinations in Chemistry. Specifically, attention was paid to comparing and finding the relationship of male and female, rural and urban area students’ achievement in theoretical and practical aspects of the Senior Secondary School Examinations in Chemistry in MOCK 2007-2009 in Yobe State. This was with the aim of finding out in which one of the components the students perform better and which one do they find difficult. It also found out if it is possible to predict students’ achievement in one practical from their achievement in theory. This was ascertained and suggestions were made with the aim of finding lasting solution to this problem. <br></p>