ABSTRACT
This study was designed to investigate the relative academic performance of junior secondary school student in integrated science and introductory technology in junior WAEC from 2002-2006 (A case study of Enugu Education zone Enugu State). The need for the study arose from the performance of junior secondary school students in integrated science and introductory technology. This study covered the selected (13) Thirteen secondary schools in Enugu education zone Enugu-state. The design was ex-post facto design. The research questions related to availability and adequacy of data analysis covered by the study. The result covering the question asked served as the main instrument for data collection. Data where analyzed using percentages. Finding of the study indicate the relative academic performance of junior secondary school student in integrated science and introductory technology in Junior WAEC in the study area is better. It is recommended that the government should provide enough equipment, workshop and laboratories for integrated science and introductory technology. Employment should be given only to qualified teachers. There should be provision for pre-services and in-service programme for to be teachers and teachers already in service respectively, for them to acquire the necessary skills and training for teaching these subjects.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Education is an instrument “par excellence” for effecting national development. In Nigerian, it has witnessed active participation by non-governmental agencies, communities and individuals as well as government intervention. Government has stated that for the benefit of all citizens, the country’s educational goals shall be clearly set out in terms of their relevance to the needs of the individual and those of the society, in consonance with the realities of our environment and the modern world.
Government’s intention was that the far reaching provisions set out in all sections of the policy transform all aspects of the nation life over time.
Integrated science is an in-depth, insightful look at how we are leveraging our strengths to continue growing into the future. It’s a combine study of all areas of the science for the improvement and up-liftment of mankind and the benefit of the worlds around us as we know it today. Integrated science is a revolution new introductory science curriculum developed at Princeton, intended for students considering a career in science. It is for some people a mean of studying old but unresolved problems and issues in science education. It is also a convenient platform for drawing attention to some research findings relating to learning and teaching science. It is a timely device for gaining some say in the fate or destiny of science education in a field that has traditionally been firmly held by scientist.
According to Jegede etal (1989) integrated science is about finding out things, doing experiments and learning what others have found out before us. It is a subject that offers students the chance to look at science in a new way lot following the traditional divisions’ into Biology, chemistry and physic. Teaching integrated science gives students and teachers an opportunity to look at the ways in which science is important to our societies and to their development. Integrated science can be more relevant to developmental issues, and should be topical and useful, rather than dry and academic. Student study integrated science that is biology, chemistry and physics all combined as science. Science is one of the ways man searches for the truth and to achieve understanding of his environment and the universe at large. Science is the search for knowledge about the universe and how it works. It is the search that never ends because, people who research never settle for the first explanation they obtain, but always the fundamental reasons why everything is the way it is. Science is offered as a core subject. It is a body of empirical, theoretical and practical knowledge about the natural world produce by researchers making use of scientific methods, which emphasize the observation, explanation and prediction of real world phenomena by experiment.