Enhancing Secondary School Girls’ Achievement and Interest Chemistry through Motivation and Reinforcement
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Date
2016
Authors
Okafor, N
Ogunbodede, A.M
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Science and Technology Education, University of Jos
Abstract
This paper determined the influence of motivation and reinforcement variables on secondary school girls’ achievement and interest in chemistry. Three null hypotheses guided the study. It was a descriptive survey that involved 250 SS II Chemistry students randomly selected from eight public coeducational secondary schools in Education District 11 of Lagos State. Four research instruments were used in data collection and data were analyzed using descriptive and ANOVA statistics as well as multiple regression analysis at 0.05 significant level. The results revealED a significant influence of motivation and reinforcement variables on secondary school girls’ achievement and interest in chemistry. Motivation influence outweighed that of reinforcement. In addition, gender had no significant influence on students’ achievement and interest in chemistry. Based on the findings, it recommended that Chemistry teachers should ensure effective use of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, adequate reinforcement as well as innovative methods of teaching such as, conceptual change pedagogy that could motivate active participation of girls’ in promoting learning outcomes during teaching- learning situation. It was concluded that chemistry teachers should ensure efficient use of the outlined motivation and reinforcement variables during theoretical and practical classes to enable Nigerian boys and girls compete favourably with their peers in global science education.
Description
Keywords
girls’ achievement in chemistry , girls’ interest in chemistry , reinforcement , motivation , Gender
Citation
Okafor, N.P & Ogunbodede, A.M.(2016). Enhancing secondary school girls’ achievement and interest in chemistry through motivation and reinforcement. International Journal of Research in Science, Technology & Mathematics Education. 4(1), 1-10. A publication of the Department of Science and Technology Education, University of Jos.