Study on the Difficult Concepts in Senior Secondary School Biology Curriculum

Abstract

This study was specifically on the study of difficult concepts in the senior secondary school biology curriculum; and was conducted within the Aguata Education zone of Anambra State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprised all the SSIII students and the biology teachers. The sample of the study was 800 subjects consisting of 680 SSIII students and 120 biology teachers. The mean was used to analyze the data and the criterion point was 3.0. The instrument for data collection was a 30 — item questionnaire. Among the findings were that genetics, evolution, biometry, etc. were some of the difficult concepts in Biology. Teacher's factors that serve as predictors of the difficult nature of the concepts included the qualification of the teacher, area of specialization, the strategy of teaching and not having the knowledge of the objectives of the program. The paper recommends among other things that quarterly workshops on capacity building for biology teachers should be organized to enable them to acquire more skills on how best to handle these concepts for better instruction to students.