PERCEPTION OF BIOLOGY LITERACY BY SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2018-07
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UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN
Abstract
Problems of students’ poor performance in biology and application of the knowledge, as revealed by researchers, may be due to the students’ perception of biology literacy. Investigating students’ perception of biology literacy should reveal information about their ideas of biology knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Therefore, the objectives of this study was to investigate the senior school students’ perception of biology literacy, based on: (i) biology knowledge, skills, and attitudes; (ii) students’ school location; (iii) class level; (iv) gender; (v) score level; (vi) preference for future career; and (vii) the school type.
A descriptive research design of the survey type was adopted for the study. The population for this study was all senior secondary school students in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Proportional random sampling technique was used to select 20% of schools in the State. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 730 students who participated in the study. The instruments for the study were a questionnaire, entitled, “Students’ Perception of Biology Literacy” and a proforma for collecting students’ cumulative end-of-term results in biology to determine the students’ score levels. Cronbach alpha was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire, with a co-efficient of 0.84.Research questions were answered using the mean and the standard deviation. Six hypotheses were generated and t-test and ANOVA statistics were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance.
The findings of the study were that:
(i) the perception of biology literacy was high, in favour of knowledge [(X= 90.35) > attitudes (X = 59.75) and > skills (X = 59.08)];
(ii) there was no significant difference in the perception of biology literacy by senior school students’ based on school location;
(iii) there was a significant difference in the perception of biology literacy by senior school students’ based on class level in favour of S.S. 2 ( F(2,728) =15.25, p <0.05);
(iv) there was a significant difference in the perception of biology literacy by senior school students’ based on gender, in favour of male students (t(728) =12.28, p < 0.05);
(v) there was a significant difference in the perception of biology literacy by senior school, students’ based on score level, in favour of high scorers (F(2,728) = 9.28, p<0.05);
(vi) there was a significant difference in the perception of biology literacy by senior school students’ based on preference for future career, in favour of students who preferred biology- related careers (t(728)= 4.19, p <= 0.05);
(vii) there was a significant difference in the perception of biology literacy by senior school students’ based on school type, in favour of private school ( t (728)= 2.27, p < 0.05)
The study concluded that senior school students in Ekiti State had high perception of biology literacy in favour of biology knowledge. This implies that the students’ perception was better in biology knowledge than skills and attitudes. It was therefore recommended that biology teachers should endeavor to develop students’ biology skills and attitudes through regular practical works to improve their overall biology literacy
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PERCEPTION, BIOLOGY LITERACY, SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS, EKITI STATE