Browsing by Author "Upahi, Johnson Enero"
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Item Analysis of senior school certificate examination chemistry questions for higher-order cognitive skills(Near East University, Turkey, 2015-09-26) Upahi, Johnson Enero; Issa, Ganiyat Bukola; Oyelekan, Solomon OloyedeAssessment as classroom activities is a fundamental process required to determine the extent to which intended learning outcomes has been achieved. Whatever form of assessment is employed to measure students’ learning, they should include tasks that are authentic, relevant and approximate skills students will need in real-life situations. These skills are well accentuated in the advocacy of the current reforms in science education to develop students’ higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) through question-asking, critical thinking and problem solving. Therefore, this research analyzes chemistry questions of senior school certificate examination conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO) within the framework of Bloom’s revised taxonomy of cognitive objectives. The source of data consisted of 257 questions drawn from 5 years examination, from 2010 – 2014. The results from this research indicated that about 80% and 44% of the questions require lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS) and factual knowledge respectively. The results further revealed that there was no question in the evaluate category of the HOCS, and none of the questions required students to apply metacognitive knowledge. The research concludes that the chemistry questions were not as cognitively demanding as they should be, and it is recommended that, examination should ensure that examination questions reflect the dual perspective of the Bloom’s revised taxonomy of cognitive process skills and the knowledge dimensions.Item Analysis of senior school certificate examination chemistry questions for higher-order cognitive skills.(Faculty of Education, Near East University, Cyprus, and Cyprus Educational Sciences Association, 2015) Upahi, Johnson EneroAssessment as classroom activities is a fundamental process required to determine the extent to which intended learning outcomes has been achieved. Whatever form of assessment is employed to measure students’ learning, they should include tasks that are authentic, relevant and approximate skills students will need in real-life situations. These skills are well accentuated in the advocacy of the current reforms in science education to develop students’ higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) through question-asking, critical thinking and problem solving. Therefore, this research analyzes chemistry questions of senior school certificate examination conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO) within the framework of Bloom’s revised taxonomy of cognitive objectives. The source of data consisted of 257 questions drawn from 5 years examination, from 2010 – 2014. The results from this research indicated that about 80% and 44% of the questions require lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS) and factual knowledge respectively. The results further revealed that there was no question in the evaluate category of the HOCS, and none of the questions required students to apply metacognitive knowledge. The research concludes that the chemistry questions were not as cognitively demanding as they should be, and it is recommended that, examination should ensure that examination questions reflect the dual perspective of the Bloom’s revised taxonomy of cognitive process skills and the knowledge dimensions.Item Analysis of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination Chemistry Questions according to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy(2016-02-28) Upahi, Johnson Enero; Israel, David Oluwadamilare; Olorundare, Adekunle SolomonThe current reform initiatives in science education placed a deliberate emphasis on the need for students to develop students’ higher order cognitive skills (HOCS) through question asking, critical thinking, and problem solving. One of the ways to achieve this goal is to improve on the quality of questions asked in examinations. This study adopted the framework of Bloom’s revised taxonomy to analyze chemistry examination questions conducted by the West African Examinations Council. 328 Chemistry questions for a period of 5 years were analyzed using this framework that reflects dual perspective on learning and cognition. The results revealed that 80% of the questions merely measured students’ lower order cognitive skills (LOCS), while 49.4% and 19.5% of the questions measured conceptual and procedural knowledge respectively. The results further revealed that none of the questions require students to employ their cognition (metacognitive knowledge). It is concluded that the questions emphasized LOCS, and do not adequately reflect the advocacy for HOCS-oriented assessments.Item ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATION POLICY THRUST OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (NEEDS) IN NIGERIA(Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 2014-03-08) Abimbola, Isaac Olakanmi; Omosewo, Esther Ore; Upahi, Johnson EneroThe National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) is Nigeria’s plan for prosperity. The plan focuses on four key strategies: reorienting values, reducing poverty, creating wealth and generating employment. In realizing the plan, education is recognized as the vital transformational tool and a formidable instrument for any socioeconomic empowerment. Policy frameworks for education were developed to propel and sustain the NEEDS initiative. The NEEDS set six goals (with targets) for education, and each of the goals is keyed to each of the policy thrust. This study, therefore, attempted to assess the extent to which the targets of NEEDS for education are implemented. A structured questionnaire was developed to elicit 250 university lecturers’ views on the extent of implementation of the education policy thrust of the NEEDS. It was found that, the targets of each of the goals of the plan that were originally designed to be a medium–term development strategy; spanning year (2004-2007) have not been fully realized 10 years after its inception. Conclusion was drawn and recommendations were made, among which are: the NEEDS planners and operators should set specific, realizable targets and time framework of human development, for students to become self-sufficient in the areas of basic needs through skills acquisition and job creation.Item Classification of End-of-Chapter Questions in Senior School Chemistry Textbooks used in Nigeria(Southwestern University/Texas State University, 2015-09-11) Upahi, Johnson Enero; Jimoh, Mutaheer AkangbeTextbooks are a prominent part of science teaching and learning. For science teachers and students, textbooks are the major source of information for planning and classroom practice. In addition to the content of textbooks are end-of-chapter questions that should consolidate students learning and enhance their thinking processes. Therefore, this study adopted the framework of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy to classify and analyze end-of-chapter questions from three senior school chemistry textbooks used in Nigeria. The results from this study indicated that majority (76%) of the questions were at the lower order of (understand, remember, and apply), while 46% and 32% measure conceptual and procedural knowledge respectively. The results further revealed that the number of questions in the categories of evaluate and create differs significantly at, F (5, 1744) = 5.61, ρ < .01, from the other categories of the cognitive process skills. The following conclusions were drawn: understand and analyze categories recorded the highest number questions in the cognitive objectives; and there was no metacognitive questions. Implications for textbook authors and teachers were discussed.Item Relationships among senior school students’ self-efficacy, metacognition and their achievement in Chemistry.(Faculty of Education, Near East University, Cyprus, and Cyprus Educational Sciences Association., 2019) Oyelekan, Oloyede Solomon; Jolayemi, Seun Sola; Upahi, Johnson EneroLearners play very significant roles in the teaching–learning process. Irrespective of how teachers teach, learners often have their own ways of learning. Three hundred senior secondary school II students selected from 10 senior secondary schools in Ilorin, Nigeria participated in the study. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 30 students from each of the 10 purposively sampled senior secondary schools. Data were collected using three instruments, namely, Chemistry Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, Chemistry Metacognition Questionnaire and Chemistry Achievement Test with reliability indices of 0.83, 0.73 and 0.86, respectively. Answers were provided to four research questions each of which has a corresponding hypothesis. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Pearson Product Moment Correlation, regression and analysis of variance. Findings from the study indicates significant positive relationship among senior secondary school students’ Chemistry self-efficacy, metacognition and their achievement in Chemistry F(2, 297) = 332.482, p < 0.05.Item The role of practical work in the teaching of Science in Nigerian schools: Experiences and challenges(Routledge, London, 2020) Upahi, Johnson Enero; Oyelekan, Oloyede SolomonItem Scientific Literacy Themes Coverage in the Nigerian Senior School Chemistry Curriculum(2017-02-15) Upahi, Johnson Enero; Gbadamosi, Rilwan; Boniface, Victoria EleojoThe current reforms in science education around the world emphasize science for all, with the ultimate goal of achieving scientific literacy. These reform initiatives provide platforms for re-designing coherent science curricula that could serve as resources for scientific literacy, and consequently, contribute to the development of scientifically literate citizens–who will be able to use scientific knowledge in their daily decision-making processes and other socio-scientific issues. This study, therefore, investigated the coverage of scientific literacy themes in the Nigerian senior school chemistry curriculum and examination questions. A framework developed by Chiappetta, Fillman and Sethna (1991) was adopted to analyze aspects of the curriculum and examination questions. The results revealed that the chemistry curriculum placed more emphasis on the knowledge of science and investigative nature of science. The examination questions mostly stressed investigative nature of science and science as a way of thinking. The interaction of science, technology and society was sparingly represented in the curriculum and the theory component of the examination questions, and almost absent in the practical questions. While the chemistry materials may have a prospect to contribute to the preparation of scientifically literate citizens, a re-adjustment to the structure of the chemistry curriculum and examination questions could provide a balance of the scientific literacy themes in chemistry materials.Item Translating Research Findings for Science Teachers: Best Practice for Science Teaching(libreriauniversitaria.it, 2016-03) Upahi, Johnson Enero; Akanmu, Morenikeji Alex; Olorundare, Adekunle SolomonResearch in science education has begun to witness a commendable growth in the last two decades. Research findings from mathematics and science-related courses have been reported in several seminars, workshops, conferences, local and international journals, yet, the impact of these researches seem to have remain little, or somewhat unfelt. The reasons attributed to this minimal impact could includes: Researchers have concentrated largely on the generation of research findings, and have given low priority to exploring their implications for, and application in, the classroom; undue attention given to fashionable research areas without adequate consideration of the practical usefulness of the research findings; the inadequacies of research recommendations to provide implications of findings to actual classroom practice; lack of awareness of research findings on the part of the teachers and their reluctances to accommodate such findings; and science teachers’ tendencies to rely on personal knowledge in the practice of science teaching. To facilitate the impact of science education research on actual classroom practice, researches should be planned and conducted vis-à-vis the adoption of research areas that have potential usefulness to science teachers, and the development of strategies to improve teachers’ awareness and willingness to adjust to research findings are discussed in this paper.