LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY OF INTEGRATED SCIENCE CONCEPTS AS PERCEIVED BY JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN KWARA STATE

NA’ALLAH, Maryam T., Ph.D & ABDULRAHIM, Basira J., Ph.D

Abstract

This study investigated the gender differences in difficulty levels of Integrated Science subject concepts at the junior secondary schools in Kwara State. The study gathered data from both male and female Integrated Science students in junior secondary school II and III (JSS 2&3). Data was collected from three hundred and forty-two (342) students (168 male and 174 female) selected from thirty (30) junior secondary schools in Kwara State. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select the schools and participants respectively from the three senatorial districts in Kwara State. A questionnaire is used to generate data on levels of difficulty of concepts in Integrated Science curriculum from students. One hypothesis was generated and tested based on the gender of participants. Data collected were analyzed using Chi-square. The result reveals that many Integrated Science concepts were perceived as difficult to learn by the students in junior secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria. Also, there was a significant difference in the perceived levels of difficulty of Integrated Science subject concepts by male and female participants in the study in favour of male Integrated Science students. It was recommended that Integrated Science teachers should encourage the female students to participate actively in-class lessons, and also efforts should be made by teachers to simplify the concepts in Integrated Science perceived difficult by students by adopting different teaching strategies/techniques.