STUDENTS’ INTEREST AS AN ATTRIBUTE NEEDED FOR BASIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LEARNING

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This study focused on Students’ interest as an attribute needed for Basic Science and Technology (BST) learning among Junior Secondary School students in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Two research questions were raised, and one hypothesis formulated for the study. The study consisted of 352 (168 males and 184 females) Junior Secondary Schools two students from the twelve (12) public Junior Secondary Schools as sample. The survey research design was adopted for the study while the simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the sample. A 10-item BST Students’ Interest (BSTSI) Questionnaire was adopted for the study. Twenty copies of the instrument were administered to twenty students who were not part of the main study but from the study population and their responses were subjected to a reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha statistics and a reliability coefficient of 0.74 was obtained. The instrument was administered to the students by the researcher with the assistance of the teachers and they were collected and collated for analysis. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used for the data analysis while t-test was used in testing the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that students’ interest as attribute needed for the learning of BST is low. It was also found that there is no significant difference between male and female students’ interest for the learning of BST. It is recommended among others that Students should be enlightened of the high value placed on science and technology to enable them to develop high or positive interest for the learning of BST and the gender parity for students’ interest in learning should be sustained. Also, parents/guardians should encourage their children to develop commendable interest in science and technology education for national development.