Effectiveness of Chemistry Teaching and Learning in Senior Secondary Schools in Lagos State

Abstract

The effectiveness of chemistry teaching and learning in Lagos state secondary school was the focus of this study. The descriptive survey research design was adopted with five research questions and two hypotheses raised. 98 chemistry teachers and 294 chemistry students in Lagos State Education Districts I and IV were sampled using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.82 was designed to collect the data for the study. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics of frequency, percentages and mean. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the hypotheses at the significance level of 0.05. The results showed that chemistry instructional materials are adequately available in Lagos state schools; chemistry students perceived their teachers to be of good qualities with respect to their personality and relationships. However, majority of the teachers still use lecture method of teaching instead of the recommended guided discovery method. Also, the findings indicate that teaching and learning of chemistry in most schools sampled are limited with challenges of inadequate laboratory equipment, lack of modern chemistry textbook, poor funding of chemistry projects and lack of incentives for chemistry teachers. It is recommended among others that government should ensure adequate provision of facilities for all government secondary schools in the state while teachers should adopt modern instructional materials and teaching methods