Students’ Conceptions of Ecology in Senior Secondary School Biology

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine students’ conceptions of ecology in senior secondary school biology. Three research questions were formulated to guide the study. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 5,780 senior secondary school two (SSS2) biology students in all the government owned educational secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone in Enugu state, Nigeria. The sample size of the study comprised of 357 senior secondary two (SS2) students drawn from the population using multi-stage sampling procedure. The researchers developed Ecology Conception Test (ECT) which consists of 10 essay items was used as instrument for data collection. The reliability coefficient of 0.871 for the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha. Frequency and percentage were used to answer research question one and students’ responses were described based on research question two. The findings of the study showed that the level of students’ conception is low; 68.8% students have NC while students with AC are 15.5%; and students with PU across all item is 6.2% whereas students with SC have 9.5%. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made.

Keywords: Students’ conception, Ecology, Biology

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-15-09

Publication date:May 31^st 2022