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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Physics is one of the most important branches of science and a core subject in science which plays important role in the day-to-day activities of man. It occupies a very sensitive position in all science-oriented courses such as engineering, mining, medicine and many others. Students who will pick up careers in sciences and engineering must have undergone training in physics in their secondary school level and must not only be good in physics but must have passed the subject at least at credit level in the senior secondary school examination (SSCE). Besides, physics enables learners to understand the world around them, what happens around them. It helps them to solve simple problems they encounter daily. Fahmy (2000) stated that the most physics aspect of physics is that it applies to our daily lives. The importance of physics in making the world worth living are too numerous to mention. However, it is disheartening to know that despite its key role, it is plagued by persistent low enrolment and under-achievement by students. This has elicited a lot of concern and generated researches to establish the causes of repeated failures. Some of these had been ascribed to poor teaching methods, limited number of professionally trained teachers, lack of instructional facilities, unavailability of suitable practical equipment, inadequate funding among others (simon, 2000; stokking, 2000; ogunniyi, 2009; owolabi and oginni, 2013; bello, 2012). Attempts have been made by educational stakeholders to find ways of improving students’ performance in the subject some of which have focused on identifying appropriate teaching methodology (bello, 2011; orora, wachanga and keraro, 2005, kibett and kathuri, 2005), improving on teachers’ mastery of content and provision of instructional materials (omosewo, 2009; adeyemo, 2011; akinfe, olofinniyi and fashiku, 2012. Despite all these efforts, the performance of students in physics is still below expectation; it is therefore pertinent to consider other factors that could be responsible for under-achievement in the subject. A major cause of under-achievement has been traced to the influence of misconceptions which students bring to science classroom especially physics class (samba, 2003; ivowi, 2010). Research had shown that students’ explanations of scientific phenomena are controlled by what they perceived from their cultural beliefs (okebukola, 2008 and yip, 2009). Learning is known to be culture dependent (mwamwenda, 2007). As noted by okoye and okeke (2007), it has been very difficult to explain most natural occurrences and issues in african life using scientific knowledge; this is because most of the people’s beliefs have been crowded with mythology and superstitions. It is mostly based on power of witchcraft and evil spirits which is a departure from scientific explanations. This has resulted to divergence between students’ daily experience in the classroom and the scientific world with most of the students having significant difficulties in describing, understanding, physicspreting and predicting natural phenomena (driver et. Al., 2011, engelhardt et al, 2004, osborne and freyberg, 2011). Science educators are now conscious of the need to relate science more closely to the students’ cultural environment in order to minimize the possible conflicts that might arise from their view of the world and that of science. This could be done by carefully considering the traditional point of view that has appropriate relation to scientific concepts. Considerable research on how mental development proceeds in humans has been reported in the literature, over the last five decades. For instance, it is now known that as the child develops biologically, he becomes more aware of the social pressures and environmental stimuli surrounding him. This observation is supported’ by nwachukwu (2013). A child ordinarily adapts to the society in which he finds himself, prior to his starting school. This is perhaps why sawyerr (2007) informed that most students come to school with mental ideas and beliefs, which were learnt from families, friends and the community, at the earlier stage of their mental development. This conclusion is also true of students when they come to science classes, for the first time. In this connection, ameh (2010) observed that students do not come to science classes with what she calls "clean slate". This is because children usually bring earlier experiences from families, friends and their communities to their science lessons. Such experiences form part of the cultural practices which they imbibed and which they fall back on in their attempt to make sense of their physics lesson in school. Physics according to bajah (2013)

Ausubel (2010) have argued that the construction of new knowledge in science is strongly influenced by prior knowledge that is conceptions gained prior to the new learning. Since physics is an important science subject taught in secondary schools which relates with physical phenomena and how they are connected to man’s daily lives, there is therefore the likelihood of cultural beliefs exerting influence on learning and manipulation of concepts. It is therefore pertinent that physics teachers assist their students to use their knowledge in ways that draw on their cultural experiences for meaningful learning to take place. This study therefore aimed at investigating the influence of cultural believes and practice on secondary school students’ understanding of atmospheric-related physics concepts.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Students who study physics come to this class with certain cultural values, experiences and expectations. Sometimes, the physics teacher may not be aware of the nature and scope of these cultural values, practices, experiences and expectations which the students bring into the physics class, and which may invariably affect the students' academic achievement the subject. A content analysis of the current Nigerian physics curriculum shows that adequate provision may not have been given to 10 enable students integrate well their cultural values, practices, experiences and expectations with physics. This implies that the physics curriculum may be considered by some as being deficient with respect to addressing the issues of cultural values, experiences and practices that tend to conflict with its teaching and learning. This incidentally, will affect students' achievements in the subject. There is therefore, the need to identify, empirically, the cultural practices which may possibly influence students' learning of physics concepts.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

 The main objective of this study is to identify cultural practices and its influence on academic performance of secondary school students in physics. Specifically, the study is designed to:

1.     Identify different cultural concepts that secondary school students’ have heard and believe in;

2.     Investigate students’ sources of information about the cultural concepts

3.     Examine the influence of cultural belief on students’ academic performance in Physics.

4.     Find out if there is any relationship between cultural practice and believe and academic performance of students

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions were raised to guide the study.

1.     What are the different cultural concepts that secondary school student have heard and believe in?

2.     What are the students’ sources of information about the cultural concept? iv.

3.     What is the influence of students’ believe in the cultural concepts on their academic performance in Physics?

4.     Is there any relationship between cultural practice and believe and academic performance of students?

1.5 HYPOTHESIS

Ho: there is no significant relationship between cultural practice and believe and academic performance of students

H1: there is significant relationship between cultural practice and believe and academic performance of students