International Journal of Arts and Humanities

The Relationship Between Students Attitude Towards Science and their Academic Performance in Selected Secondary Schools in Bo City, Southern Sierra Leone

Abstract

Accepted 8^th January, 2021.

Science teaching and learning in schools and colleges in Africa has for a long time been patch work that quickly fell apart. Science subjects have always been looked at as mysterious and difficult to learn. The fear of studying science subjects leads to all sorts of attitudes mostly negative attitudes towards the subject and this subsequently affects performance. The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between students’ attitude towards science and their academic performance in five selected secondary schools in Bo city .The study is a descriptive survey design which showed the relationship between two variables; attitude and performance. The population of the study included; administrators, science teachers and students in the schools under investigation. These include the Bo school, Milton comprehensive secondary school, Christ the king College, Queen of the Rosary secondary school and United Christian Church making a total population of 4,500. The sample size is 185, comprising 10 administrators, 75 science teachers and 100 students. The results indicated that attitude of students towards science and academic performance have significant relationship. The poor performance of some students in science in these schools is not unconnected with certain problems ranging from lack of adequate teaching/learning materials, ill-equipped science laboratories to inadequate trained and unqualified science specialists. Recommendations made included; motivation of science teachers, availability of teaching/learning materials in schools, provision of equipped laboratories, and employment of qualified science teachers.

Keywords: Students Attitude, Performance, science laboratories, science teachers, relationship, teaching/learning materials