Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (SJHSS)
Volume-3 | Issue-07 | 815-823
Original Research Article
Class Size and Students’ Attitude to Learning Biology in Gombi Educational Zone of Adamawa State, Nigeria
Dorcas Oluremi Fareo, Jonah Inusa
Published : July 30, 2018
Abstract
The aim of the study was to establish the attitude of students to learning
Biology, to examine the academic performance of students in Biology and to compare
the attitude of male and female students towards class size. This study investigated the
attitude of students to class size and learning Biology. It established the effect of class
size on students’ academic performance in Biology in Senior Secondary Schools in
Gombi Educational Zone, Adamawa State. The study adopted survey design Three
research questions and three hypotheses were postulated. The target population for the
study comprised 17, 523 senior public secondary school students in Gombi Educational
Zone, Adamawa State, and a sample size of 400 was selected by stratified sampling
technique. The research instrument titled “Attitude of Students’ to Class Size and
Learning of Biology Questionnaire (ASCSLBQ)” was adapted from Omwirhiren &
Faith, 2016. The instrument comprised of 46 items divided into 3 sections. The face
and content validity of the instrument was established by two experts in Counselling
Psychology and Test and Measurement in the Department of Science Education,
Adamawa State University, Mubi. Test-retest method was used to carry out the
reliability test and the reliability coefficient was 0.82. The data collected were analyzed
using descriptive and inferential statistics which included percentages, mean, Standard
Deviation, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings revealed that classes are
very rowdy because students are too many, making students not hearing the teacher
well during lessons, students love Biology as a subject, because they feel at ease in
Biology class, feels good when they solve Biology questions, and are willing to spend
more time reading Biology books. There is no significant difference between male and
female students attitude towards class size. There is significant difference between the
male and female students’ attitude towards the learning of Biology; and there is
significant difference between male and female students’ academic performance.
Biology is a general subject offered by all senior secondary school students, but the
classes allocated to them are too small, as a result the classes are overcrowded. Even
though the students have keen interest in Biology, they cannot perform practical very
well because the teachers cannot give individual attention to the large numbers of
students, others cannot even hear him well during lessons because there are no public
address systems. This factor could adversely affect students’ academic performance in
Biology. Based on this finding it was recommended that number of students in a class
should be streamlined to at most 40 students. In addition, government should provide
materials for teaching and learning Biology.