A CAUSAL MODEL OF SOME SCHOOL FACTORS AS DETERMINANTS OF NIGERIAN SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN PHYSICS

The recognition of the fact that school factors are paramount to learning, coupled with the need to put out of place the problem of senior secondary students’ poor performance in physics informed this study. The study was undertaken to examine the causal effect of some senior secondary school factors as it affects students’ performance in physics. Hence, the investigators specifically developed and validated a school model involving causal linkages between characteristics such as school type, gender, teacher’s qualification, school principal’s area of specialization and physics learning resources, and achievement in physics (the dependent variable). The sample comprised of: three hundred and thirty (330) students comprising of 167 males and 163 females Nigerian senior secondary physics students. Twenty schools with twenty-two school principals (21 males & 1 female) and twenty-two physics teachers (all males) participated in the study. A multistage sampling technique comprising of two stages was employed to select the subjects. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select the schools while purposive technique was used to select the students, the principals and physics class teachers. Three validated instruments were used to collect the data while path – analysis and multiple regression (using backward solution) were employed for data analysis. The findings of this study documented the more parsimonious model, which is effective in predicting the senior secondary students’ academic performance in physics. The results further indicated that two (School Type & Gender) out of the five predictor variables have both direct and indirect causal linkages. The implications of these findings for education policy makers, administrators and teachers are discussed.