Classroom instructional training needs of teachers and senior secondary students' attitudes towards chemistry

Abstract

This study investigated relationship between classroom instructional needs of teachers and students' attitudes towards chemistry in senior secondary schools in Ogun East Senatorial District. The design adopted was descriptive survey. Multistage sampling technique was used to sample 30 Chemistry teachers and 450 Chemistry students. Teacher Classroom Instructional Needs Assessment Scale (TECINAS; r=0.84) and Student Chemistry Attitudes Questionnaire (SCAQ; r= 0.85) were used in data collection. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and Pearson r were used in data analysis. Results showed that classroom instructional needs of chemistry teachers were minimal. In addition, there was no significant relationship (Pearson r = .237; P (.207) .05) between instructional delivery needs of Chemistry teachers and students' attitudes towards chemistry. Results further showed that resourcefulness and improvisation of instructional materials training needs of Chemistry teachers did not have any significant relationship (Pearson r = .059; P (.755) .05) with students' attitudes towards Chemistry. Though chemistry teachers were not adequately proficient in few core areas of classroom instruction, the students' attitudes were probably determined by some other factors excluded in the study. Among others, it was recommended that government should organize periodic training and retraining for the teachers.