SOCIAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AS CORRELATES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES IN CHEMISTRY

Abstract

This study investigated social learning environment as correlates of secondary school students’ attitudes in Chemistry in Ogidi education zone. One research question and a sole hypothesis tested at .05alpha level guided the conduct of the study. Correlation survey design was adopted for the research. Population of the study was 2840 SS 2 Chemistry students in Ogidi education zone. Fifty percent of (50%) the total populations (2840) were selected using simple random sampling technique. Multistage sampling technique involving different procedure at each stage was used to select 26 co-educational schools from the 40 schools in Ogidi education zone which amounted to 1,420 senior secondary two (SS2) Chemistry students which were used. The instruments used for data collection were Social Learning Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) and Student’s Attitude Scale (SAS) validated by two lecturers from Departments of Science Education and one lecturer from Education Foundations all in faculty of Education Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The reliability of the two instruments was established using Cronbach alpha. Coefficient of .71 and .73 were yielded showing that the instruments were reliable. The students were giving the instruments to respond to the questions which were used to collect the data. Pearson product moment correlation was used to answer research question while ANOVA was used to test the sole hypothesis at .05 level of significant. Findings of the study revealed that social learning environment has a moderate positive relation with students’ attitudes in Chemistry and there was a significant relationship between students’ perception of social learning environment scores and attitudes towards Chemistry. From the findings of the study, recommendations and conclusions were made.