Gender and school type as predictors of performance of senior secondary school physics students in Ilorin, Kwara State

Abstract

The study investigated gender and school type as predictors of performance of senior secondary Physics students in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. The study was a descriptive survey. A total of six hundred and twenty five Physics students participated in the study. A validated Proforma was used to collect records of students that sat for 2014 (WASSCE) in Physics which were converted to scores and were analyzed using mean, and t-test statistical techniques. The finding showed that there was a significant difference in the academic performance of male and female senior school students in Physics in favor of male students. there was a significant difference in the academic performance of senior school students in private schools and those in public schools in Physics in favor of private schools, there was a significant difference in the academic performance of male senior school students in private and public schools in Physics in favor of private schools while there was no significant difference in the academic performance in physics between female students in private and public senior schools in Ilorin. It was recommended that Physics teachers should be more gender-sensitive in their pedagogical approaches as well as in the implementation of the Physics curriculum. Physics teachers in public schools should make genuine effort towards improving the academic performance of students in the subject so as to equal the private schools in terms of students' academic performance.