The Effect of Scientific Literacy An Approach to Technological Achievement in Physics Education among Students in Aguata/Nnewi Educational Zone, Anambra State.

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the effect of scientific literacy an approach to technological achievement in physics Education with gender and location as independent variables. There is a growing demand for the science educators to improve the learning of physics particularly in the development of the world due to the critical role it plays in terms of technological advancement. Many approaches and methods are applied with the intention of improving literacy achievements in the subject. The STS approach is an approach that espouses science technology approach specific contents and methods. Three themes are embodied in the physics content: physics discipline content, technology discipline content and the context of both, the society. Emphasis is laid on communication skills. The methods it espouses are those that encourage critical thinking and problem-solving rather than discovery. The traditional science instruction on the other hand, places high premium on science discipline content with little emphasis on technology and society. It also espouses methods that lead to discovery e.g. inquiry and directed -discovery methods. To carry out this investigation, three research .questions and nine null hypotheses guided the researcher. A quasi-experimental design of the pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group was adopted. A population of 3,017 SSII & SSIII physics students from 88 schools and Aguata and Nnewi Educational zone was identified. From this, 246 SSII & SSIII physics students were sampled from 4 secondary schools. Each one was stratified into rural and urban and one male school and one female school were sampled from each stratum. For each school sampled, two classes of SS II & SS III were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. The former were taught using the STS approach while the latter were taught using the traditional science instruction approach. The regular class teacher taught each. Two topics were selected from the physics core curriculum: momentum and force of gravity. This was on the basis that they are related and ample STS content derived from them appropriate STS concepts were identified from these topics and infused into the lesson for the experimental group. Two testing instruments were used to collect data- a self-made Physics Achievement Test (PAT) and an adapted scale for scientific literacy (Scientific Literacy Scale, SLS). After trial testing, The former gave 071 for SLS while the later gave 0.84 for SLS and 0.6 for PAT. The research questions were answered by descriptive statistics while the null hypotheses were analyzed by ANCOVA and Regression analyses. The results showed among others that the STS approach is better than the traditional approach in the development of scientific literacy and achievement in physics; the STS approach has a differential effect on scientific literacy and achievement in physics in favour of rural students; STS approach aids development of an understanding of the nature of science more than STS interactions and basic Physics concepts; there is no relationship between scientific literacy and achievement in physics, however, STS approach mediates between scientific literacy and achievement to produce a weak positive relationship. The implication for science education is that the STS approach should be adopted for the teaching of physics in the present millennium. This is because it will enhance the much-desired scientific literacy. It was therefore, recommended that Nigeria should, like other countries, revise the physics curricula to incorporate STS tenets and practicing physics teachers be retrained in this line.