PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF ACADEMIC MENTORING ON INTEREST AND ATTITUDE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL CHEMISTRY STUDENTS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Mentoring plays a very important role in the academic development of students and is essential in decreasing seclusion, fear, psychological ambiguities and uncertainties in students. The researchers investigated Perceived influence of academic mentoring on interest and attitude of secondary school Chemistry students in secondary schools in Anambra state, Nigeria. The study was guided by four research questions and two hypotheses. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The sample consisted of 284 SS11 Chemistry students who were randomly selected from 11 government owned secondary schools used for the study. These schools were selected by purposive sampling from the boarding secondary schools in Anambra state. The instrument used for data collection was a validated structured questionnaire titled “Influence of Academic Mentoring in Enhancing the Interest and Attitude of Chemistry Students” (AMIACS). The questionnaire had a reliability coefficient of 0.79 using Cronbach Alpha technique. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Z test statistics. The result of the analysis shows that academic mentoring enhances students’ interest in Chemistry and helps them become more motivated to learn and there was no significant difference on the means of male and female students on the influence of academic mentoring on their interest in chemistry. The result also shows that academic mentoring positively influences Chemistry students’ attitude and there was no significant different on the mean responses of male and female students on the influence of academic mentoring on their attitude in Chemistry so both gender exhibits similar improvements in interest and attitude when provided with supportive mentoring. The researchers recommended among others that Mentors should be given proper training on effective mentoring strategies and communication skills. Also mentoring programmes should emphasize the real-life applications of Chemistry to sustain students’ interest and help them develop positive attitude towards chemistry. Conclusion was also made.