Students' consistent poor achievements in physics have been attributed non-availability and non-utilization of ICT resources among others. This study therefore, sought to investigate the Availability and Utilization Status of ICT Resources for Physics Education in Colleges of Education in Enugu State. The area comprised all the 8 accredited public and private Colleges of Education in Enugu State. Census survey research design was adopted for this study. No sampling was involved due to the manageable size of the population (30 physics lecturers: 21 males and 9 females). Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire, developed by the researcher, validated by three experts and trial tested on 7 physics education lecturers. The researcher administered the instrument to the physics lecturers in the public and private Colleges of Education in Enugu State. The responses were collected and Kuder-Richardson's formula-20 (K-R-20) (availability status) and Cronbach alpha (utilization status) statistics were employed to compute the internal consistency estimate of the items. The reliability coefficient obtained was 0.96, which shows that it is reliable. Research questions were answered using mean, and standard deviation. The results of the study indicated that ICT resources are available but fairly utilized by the physics lecturers for teaching and learning Physics in Colleges of Education in Enugu State. It was recommended that lecturers in the Colleges of Education in the state should make up their minds to embrace and harness the new learning systems which ICT tools brought by the emerging technologies for improving teaching and learning outcomes in schools and colleges.
A responsive curriculum is a curriculum that is relevant to the current and anticipated needs, problems and aspirations of the learners. Unfortunately, the curriculum that is in use does not address the anticipated needs, problems and aspirations of the learners, or it is not responsive enough to meet the technological needs of the society. Therefore, a concerted effort and a total overhauling towards our education policy is imminent at this point in time. The present curriculum enthrones western culture in our land, thereby, undermining the culture and value of different states in this nation. Our educational system and value have been raped and murdered on the altar of modernization. The Nigeria education system is in trouble; and every day it continues to dwindle and deteriorate in essence, structure and purpose. The extent of damage that has been meted on our education is too alarming. The work revealed that in order to remedy the illness with Nigeria curriculum, there is need for the adoption of responsive curriculum development and employ this curriculum strictly in Nigerian education system. It showed that amongst other features, responsive curriculum should be: integrated and interdisciplinary, authentic, learner-centered and oriented to real life situations, utilizing materials from the learner's culture, assisting the learner to develop critical thinking ability. It also revealed that for the attainment of Nigeria's development through the instrumentality of curriculum, it is imperative that curriculum designers develop a responsive curriculum whose adoption in the Nigerian schools will develop valuable human capital that is needed for economic growth and human development. In view of the study, the researchers recommended that: curriculum experts should design a curriculum that is responsive to the current needs, aspirations and problems of the people, and in line with technological advancement, Government should motivate teachers through increase in salary and allowances so as tO encourage them in putting in their best in harnessing the potentials of our future generation and teachers should prepare their teaching contents/objectives by effectively utilizing materials/ideas from learner's culture.
The study investigated social competence and gender as predictors of junior secondary school students' academic achievement in basic science in Enugu state. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The predictive correlation design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 9,192 upperbasic science students in Enugu state. The sample size for the study was 1000 students drawn using multi-faceted sampling procedure involving purposive and random sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was Students ' Social Competence Scale. The students' achievement scores in Basic science were obtained from the teachers' score folder. Data generated from the study was analysed using simple and multiple linear regressions. The findings of the study revealed among others that 1.6% and 1.1% of the variance in achievement in Basic science was attributed to social competence and gender of Basic science students' respectively. Also, achievement scores in Basic science were significantly predicted by social competence and gender, individually and jointly. It was recommended that basic science teachers should ensure that the atmosphere within the classroom is gender friendly enough, making sure that both male and female students have a conducive social atmosphere to be actively involved in learning Basic science.
This study focused on teachers' academic self-concept and academic stress as predictors of academic achievement of Biology students' in Enugu Education Zone. Six (6) null hypotheses were postulated for the study. The study adopted ex-post-facto research design. The population of study comprised 74 Biology teachers in 33 public secondary schools in Enugu Education Zone with SS 2 biology students' population of 4,737. The sample consisted of all the Biology teachers' in the Zone and a sample of 10% of the students' were sampled from the Biology teachers' classroom. The instrument used for data collection were three (3) Marsh teachers' academic self-concept scale, Balamurugau and Kumaran academic stress scale and Students' scores from their promotion examination 2022/2023 academic year were used to measure their academic achievement in Biology. The instruments were validated by three experts and the internal consistency reliability was determined though Cronbach Alpha method. The teachers' self-concept scale yielded a reliability index of 0.92 while teachers' academic stress scale yielded an index of 0.88 coefficients. The data collected were analysed using Simple and multiple regression analysis with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. The findings of the study showed that: Teacher academic self-concept significantly and positively predicted students' academic achievement in Biology in Enugu Education Zone; likewise, teachers' academic stress significantly and negatively predicted students' academic achievement in Biology in Enugu Education Zone. Based on these findings it was recommended amongst others that Biology teachers should arrange learning activities, in such a way that it will help students to be self-directed in their learning in order to have significantly positive achievement in Biology.
Students' continuous underachievement in physics has underpinned the efficacy of non-cognitive variables like students attitude in physics. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate attitude as predictor of academic achievement of secondary school Physics students in Agbani Education Zone of Enugu State. An Ex-post-facto and correlational survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 2752 SS II Physics students' in Agbani education zone from 44 public schools. Purposive sampling procedure was used in selecting 275 Physics students comprising 144 males and 131 females from twelve selected schools in the Zone. Physics Attitude Scale (PAS) adapted from Sumeyye and Oktay (2020) and Students' Achievement Scores obtained from their promotion examination results of 2022/2023 academic session from the schools used were used for data collection. The instrument (PAS) was face validated by three experts and tested for reliability using Cronbach's alpha with the reliability index of 0.82. Data were analyzed using simple regressions. The results indicated that attitude relatively and significantly contributed 39% to the prediction of academic achievement of secondary school Physics. Based on these findings, it was recommended that students should develop positive attitude in physics. Teachers should adopt teaching strategies that would stimulate students positive attitude in teaching Physics.
The dearth of studies on the predictive power o f non-cognitive variables like academic self-regulation and locus of control as predictors of academic achievement of Physics students in the Department of Science Education, Technology, Enugu State, Nigeria necessitated the study. Three null hypotheses tested at.05 level of significance guided the study. An ex-post-facto research design was adopted for the study. Purposive sampling procedure was used in selecting 139 Physics Education students comprising 75 males and 64 fe males from Physics programme, Department of Science Education. Three instruments were used for data collections. Academic self - regulation scale was adapted from Akhatar and Mahmood (2013). A cademic locus of control scale was adapted from Trice (1985) and Physics academic Achievement sc ores were extracted from the students' semester examination of 2020/2021 academic session, conducted by the university, (ESUT). The reliability of the instruments were tested using Cronbach's alpha which yielded indices of 0.87and 0.76 respectively. Data were analyzed using multiple regression. The results indicated that academic self-regulation and locus of control relatively and jointly contributed significantly to the prediction of academic achievement of Physics Ed ucation students. There was no variati on in relative and joint prediction of achievement in Physics based on gender. Based on the findings, it was recommended that lecturers should adopt teaching strategies that should stimulate Physics students' gender-friendly academic self -regulation and locus of con trol in order to increase students' achievement in Physics.
