A STUDY OF PERCEIVED DIFFICULT TOPICS IN BASIC SCIENCE CURRICULUM FOR JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN IFE CENTRAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT, OSUN STATE

Abstract

This study investigated perceived difficult topics in Basic Science curriculum in
junior secondary schools. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The
sample constituted 100 junior secondary school Basic Science students. One local
government was selected from the state using random sampling techniques. From the
local government, five secondary schools were selected using simple random
sampling technique and one intact class of the junior secondary school two was
selected using simple random sampling technique. The research instrument used for
data collection was Student's Questionnaire on Basic Science (SQBS). Data
collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage. The
result showed that forces and motion, soil pollution, air pollution, simple machines,
changes in non-living things and crude oil and petrochemicals were identified to be
difficult with the frequency and percentage of 62.0%, 72.0%, 68.0%, 65.0%, 57.0%
and 68.0% respectively. Also, the result showed that 48.18% of maleand 51.82%
female students identified Basic Science concepts as being difficult. Finally, the
result showed that 51.8% of the respondents were affirmative about the challenges
students' face in understanding the difficult concepts in Basic Science while 48.2% of
the respondents had contrary opinion on challenges students' face in understanding
the difficult concepts in Basic Science. It is recommended that both teachers and students should pay more attention to the teaching and learning of these difficult
concepts in Basic Science in order to improve the performance of the students.