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IN-SERVICE TEACHERS’ PERCEIVED REASONS FOR CHEMISTRY CONTENT DIFFICULTY IN SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Alake, Ese Monica

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Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the perceived reasons for the difficulty of chemistry content in the senior secondary school curriculum among in-service teachers. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 120 teachers from various secondary schools who were participants in this research. The data collected with a structured questionnaire was subjected to statistical analysis to draw meaningful insights. The findings revealed that in-service teachers ranked their perceived multiple factors contributing to the complexity of chemistry content in senior secondary education. Notably, wrong deployment of teachers leading to handling of chemistry by biology teachers (WDT) was ranked first as the primary reason for difficulty while non-currency of teachers was ranked last. Furthermore, no significant difference was found in the perception of teachers in respect of chemistry content difficulty based on their gender. Recommendations were made based on the findings of this study that more qualified chemistry teachers should be recruited by the government. This will forestall the deployment of wrong teachers who were not pedagogically trained to teach chemistry. Similarly, regular trainings should be provided for update of teachers’ knowledge and skills.

Keywords: In-service, Teachers, Perceived Reasons, Chemistry, Difficulty and Curriculum