BASIC SCIENCE AS A PREDICTOR OF STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE SUBJECTS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

Öz

This research work was a predictive study under correlation study. The study examines the relationship that existed between students’ performance in Basic Science at the Junior Secondary School Examination (2008) and their later performances in Senior School Science Subjects Examination in (2011). The target population for the study was all the junior and Senior Secondary Schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Random sampling techniques was used to select twenty-five (25) Junior and Senior Secondary Schools between 2008 and 2011, the instrument used in the study was the Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JSCE) result (2008) Basic Science and Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) results in Biology, Chemistry and Physics (2012). Twelve hypotheses were raised, and a correlation analysis was done to establish the relationship between students’ scores in Basic Science and the Senior School Science subjects using spearman’s order rank correlation efficient (rho) at 0.05 an alpha level of significance. The finding showed that the results of students in Basic Science and Senior School Sciences showed a positive significant correlation. And average mean indices showed that the students performed above average in both Basic Science in the Junior Secondary School and the Senior School Science subjects. It was also showed that Biology has least mean indices and that students performed better in Physics than in Biology and Chemistry, it was also discovered that the average mean indices for female students was a little bit higher than that of male students and that students performed better without considering the gender differences. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the placements of students in science class at the Senior Secondary School should be based on the students’ performance in Basic Science at the Junior Secondary School; and that students should be more serious about Biology and not to see it as the simplest science subject that they can easily pass; it was also recommended that male students should not relent efforts in science subjects but put more efforts and that female students should sustain their good performance in science subjects moreover it was recommended that some of the existing single – sex schools in the country be converted to coeducational schools to raise the trends of students performances in science subjects.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Basic Science
• Predictor
• Students
• Performance
• Sciences

Kaynakça

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