Analysis of errors committed by physics students in secondary schools in Ilorin metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

The study attempt to find out the types of error committed and influence of gender on the type of error committed by senior secondary school physics students in metropolis. Six (6) schools were purposively chosen for the study. One hundred and fifty five students' scripts were randomly sampled for the study. Joint Mock physics essay questions (JMPEQ) for SS3 physics students, and researchers prepared error identification and classification and index (REICI) were used as the instruments. The reliability coefficient of REICI scores was 0.78. Frequency counts, means percentages and chi-square were used to analyze the data collected. The findings of the study revealed that four types of errors were committed by students this include Operational errors, Defective Algorithms, Random errors and computational error. The total frequency of errors committed by male students was significantly higher than that of their female students. It was recommended that physics teachers should explore pedagogic techniques towards minimizing the occurrence of wrong operations, computational errors, defective algorithms, and random errors.