ABSTRACT
Social learning environment significantly impacts a child’s cognitive identity and formative fabrics that permeate the child's total person. The culture and community within which a child learns impact his beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors to determine his success r failure. Therefore, the study investigated the impact of social learning environment on secondary school students learning biology in Aniocha South local government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was applied to the study. The study's objective focused on determining the impact of social learning environment on students' learning attitudes based on their sex, school ownership, and school location. Four research questions were raised to direct the study.
The study population comprised all the Senior secondary school students in senior secondary school class 3 from all the public and private secondary schools registered to write Biology in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination 2025 in the local government area. The purposive sampling technique was used to pick all the 221 students from eight secondary schools selected for the study. The research instruments for data collection were the questionnaires developed by the researcher and validated by three Lecturers in the department. 221 questionnaires were administered to the respondents and adequately completed, and the retrieved ones used for analysis were 216 copies, representing a 97.7 percent retrieval rate. The collected data were analyzed using mean and standard deviations, and t-test statistics. The findings revealed that: social learning environment that influence students learning Biology include Peer influence, student-teacher relationship, and parental support; there is no difference in the influence of social learning environment on secondary school students learning of biology based on sex; there is difference in the influence of social learning environment on secondary school students learning of biology based on school ownership in favor of private schools; and there is difference in the influence of social learning environment on secondary school students learning of biology based on school location in favor of urban schools. From the findings of the study, it was concluded that improvement in students’ social learning environment will promote students learning of Biology and improved performance while maintaining a balance in the adequacy of social learning environment with regards to school ownership and school location, which will bring about equitable conducive learning environment for students and serve to bridge their educational performance gaps.
The study recommended that: Management of secondary schools should ensure adequate monitoring and improvement of students social learning environment, secondary school teachers should maintain cordiality with their learners irrespective of students’ sex, and government should ensure that educational needs are adequately provided in public secondary schools to match with private schools.
