ABSTRACT
This study investigated the attitude of girls towards the study of chemistry in senior secondary schools in Egor Local government area of Edo State. Four research questions were raised to guide the study. The questions bothered on; the attitude of the girl child toward study of chemistry, factors that enhance the attitude of the girl child towards the study of chemistry, difference between the attitudes of male students and their female counterparts toward chemistry and role of the chemistry teacher in the attitude of the girl child towards the study of chemistry.
The study employed descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised of all female chemistry students in the eleven (11) public senior secondary school in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State, with a total number of two thousand six hundred and twenty six (2626). A stratified random sampling technique was used in selection of one hundred chemistry students from 5 senior secondary schools in Egor Local government area of Edo State. A self-structured questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The instrument was titled “attitude of girls towards the study of chemistry in senior secondary schools in Egor Local government area of Edo State”. The data collected was analyzed using simple percentage.
The result revealed that; the female students in the study area have negative attitude towards the study of chemistry. Also, the findings revealed that the factors that could increase the study of chemistry among female students include the sex of the chemistry teacher, the allocated time of chemistry class on the school timetable, the teaching method and parental encouragements. The study concluded that majority of female students are plagued by the phobia of studying chemistry due to brain tasking, learning formulas by heart, inability to score pass marks due to incorrect formulae in calculations. In-line with the findings the study recommended that Chemistry teachers should continue to encourage female students to develop positive disposition towards chemistry and its processes in other to make them maintain their disposition toward active learning and improved academic performance. Also, measures must be taken to improve the quality of Chemistry teachers, like; careful recruitment, improved preparation of Chemistry teachers in training institutions, retraining programmes for young teacher with limited experience, etc.
