Abstract
The study sought to find out the biological topics in the National Curriculum that students in Senior Secondary School Two (SSII) have difficulties in learning, the reasons why students have difficulties in learning such topics in biology, and to suggest ways of improving the effectiveness of the teachinglearning process of biological topics. For these purposes, a questionnaire consisting of both closed and open-ended items was administered to the students in the data collection procedure. The instrument was administered to 400 SS II students in some selected secondary schools in Education District V of Lagos State. The data collected were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The result showed that there was no significant difference in the perception of students on difficult topics in Biology on the basis of their subject areas - Science, Commercial or Arts (F(2, 397) = 1.523, P > 0.05, Partial η2 = .008, R2=.003). Moreover, findings revealed that students usually have difficulties in five major topics. Among of which were nutrient cycling in nature, ecological management, conservation of natural resources, pests and diseases of crops as well as reproductive system in plants. However, teaching strategies, students’ attitude, inadequate learning resources and students’ learning habits were the reasons adduced by students of the perceived difficult topics. In remedying the problem, the students suggested the use of varied strategies that would involve appropriate instructional materials, use of hands-on and minds-on strategy, integrating biological concepts to daily life and provision of adequate and functional resources.KEYWORDS: Perceptions of students, difficult biology topics, Biology learning, effective teaching, effective learning.
Highlights
The characters in current teaching appear to be discipline-centred, teacher-centred teaching, and the student learning is just passive surface learning
The purpose of this study is to investigate into the students’ perceived difficult topics in senior secondary school Biology in Lagos State
The findings of this study showed that, SS II students perceived five Biology topics out of the fourteen topics in SS II as contained in the National Curriculum to be difficult
Summary
The characters in current teaching appear to be discipline-centred, teacher-centred teaching, and the student learning is just passive surface learning. A wealth of evidence has been reported to support the concept that under the discipline-centred teaching, the needs, concerns, and requirements of teachers and students are not considered because the subject content is driven by, and depends mainly on the disciplinary content that must be presented. Science teaching requires attention to both the content of the course and the process of moving students from their initial state of knowledge and understanding to the desired level. Teaching is part of a whole that comprises the teacher, the learner, the disciplinary content, the teaching/learning process, and the evaluation of both the teacher and the learner.
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