Effects of Class Size on Performance and Attitude in Ecology Among Senior Secondary Students in Sabon-tasha, Kaduna State, Nigeria
Author: Salomi Kennedy Gwamna, Alexander Jatau & Louis Ugwu
Abstract: This study investigated the effects of class size on performance and attitude in ecology among secondary schools students in Sabon-Tasha Education Zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The targeted populations were all the 1,183 second-year senior secondary Biology students. The sample size was 101 SS II students selected from the population using the purposive sampling technique. The research design was a descriptive survey design of the ex-post facto type. The instruments used were; Ecology Performance Test (EPT), and the Students’ Attitude Questionnaire (SATQ). The reliability coefficient of the instruments were; EPT = 0.78 and SATQ = 0.77. Two research questions (RQ) were raised to guide the study, one of which was “Is there any difference between the mean scores of students in large class size and those in small class size?” two hypotheses (Ho) were postulated to guide the study and tested at 0.05 level of significance. One of the hypotheses was as follows: “There is no significant difference between the mean scores of students in large class size and those in small class size in ecology concepts” descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while Independent sampled t-test and Mann-Witney test was used to test the hypotheses. The major findings showed that; a significant difference exists between the academic performance of students in large class size and small class size. On the basis of these findings, the following recommendation was made: The Federal and State Governments should build enough classrooms in schools with adequate facilities needed for effective classroom teaching and learning.