Abstract

This study investigated teachers’ pedagogical competence as determinant of students’ attitude towards Basic Science in South-West Nigeria. The study was a descriptive survey type study. Participants were 2160 students randomly selected from 108 secondary schools across four States in South- west Nigeria together. 324 teachers teaching Basic Science in Junior Secondary Schools were purposively selected for the study. Two instruments were used for data collection. The first was a 25 item questionnaire titled “Basic Science Teachers pedagogical Competence Questionnaire (BSPCQ) and the second instrument was also a questionnaire with 25 structured item questions titled “Students’ Attitudinal Questionnaire” (SAQ). The reliability of the instruments was determined through test and re-test method which yielded a correlation co-efficient of 0.87 and 0.89 for BSPCQ and SAQ, respectively at 0.05 level of significance. Mean and Ranking Order and Multiple Regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that, teachers’ pedagogical competence can significantly influence students’ attitude towards Basic Science. It was recommended that, emphasis should be laid on teachers’ qualifications while employing Basic Science teachers. Teachers should also intensify efforts in using various teaching styles which could influence students’ attitude. It was also recommended that adequate measures should be taken by the teachers to ensure that students benefit from their teaching. In addition, the government and other educational stakeholders should arrange for seminars and workshops for their teachers to boost their levels of competence in the classroom. Teachers should also exhibit positive attitude that can influence students’ attitude towards Basic Science.

Key words: Teachers’ pedagogical competence, students’ attitude, teacher’s attitude, basic science.