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The Mix of Physics, Chemistry and Biology: Preference and Performance of Distance Education Students in Science

Select Volume / Issue:

• Volume 2,Issue 6, Nov. 2015

Year:

2015

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Biology, Chemistry, distance education, Physics, Science

Authors:

• Hordzi, Wisdom Harrison K.

Journal:

IJIRES

Volume:

2

Number:

6

Pages:

477-484

Month:

November

BibTex:

@article{441, author = "Wisdom Harrison K. Hordzi", abstract = "In Ghana one of the subjects that students dread is science. This most often prevents many students from boldly opting for science courses and thereby denying them of the opportunity to acquire basic scientific knowledge that they need for day-to-day activities. However, the general impression is that Biology is more manageable than Physics and Chemistry. Meanwhile, all diploma students and few Post Diploma students of University of Education, Winneba distance education programme offer science courses. This study was initiated to find out which component of the science programme (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) appeals more to the distance education students and their performance in science in general. To do this, course contents of three science courses of second semester of 2013/2014 academic year were analysed to find out how much of Physics, Chemistry and Biology each course contained. Also, examination items were analysed to find out how many questions covered each of the three subject areas. The performance of students for Section C items were also analysed to find out how students fared in relation to the three subject areas. It was realized that 50% of one course was made up of Biology while in the other two 25% of each one contained Biology topics. Similarly, Biology items prominently featured in Sections A and B of the examination papers of the courses more than Physics and Chemistry. Students generally, preferred Biology items in Section C than Physics and Chemistry. However, the general performance in the three courses was low and students did not perform any extraordinarily for the Biology items compared to Physics and Chemistry. The impression is that Biology topics in the various courses encouraged students to take part in the science courses. However, there is the need for science course tutors on the distance education programme to use more friendly methods to encourage students to like Physics and Chemistry topics as well.", journal = "IJIRES", keywords = "Biology, Chemistry, distance education, Physics, Science", month = "November", note = "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/", number = "6", pages = "477-484", title = "{T}he {M}ix of {P}hysics, {C}hemistry and {B}iology: {P}reference and {P}erformance of {D}istance {E}ducation {S}tudents in {S}cience", volume = "2", year = "2015", }

Note:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Abstract:

In Ghana one of the subjects that students dread is science. This most often prevents many students from boldly opting for science courses and thereby denying them of the opportunity to acquire basic scientific knowledge that they need for day-to-day activities. However, the general impression is that Biology is more manageable than Physics and Chemistry. Meanwhile, all diploma students and few Post Diploma students of University of Education, Winneba distance education programme offer science courses. This study was initiated to find out which component of the science programme (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) appeals more to the distance education students and their performance in science in general. To do this, course contents of three science courses of second semester of 2013/2014 academic year were analysed to find out how much of Physics, Chemistry and Biology each course contained. Also, examination items were analysed to find out how many questions covered each of the three subject areas. The performance of students for Section C items were also analysed to find out how students fared in relation to the three subject areas. It was realized that 50% of one course was made up of Biology while in the other two 25% of each one contained Biology topics. Similarly, Biology items prominently featured in Sections A and B of the examination papers of the courses more than Physics and Chemistry. Students generally, preferred Biology items in Section C than Physics and Chemistry. However, the general performance in the three courses was low and students did not perform any extraordinarily for the Biology items compared to Physics and Chemistry. The impression is that Biology topics in the various courses encouraged students to take part in the science courses. However, there is the need for science course tutors on the distance education programme to use more friendly methods to encourage students to like Physics and Chemistry topics as well.

Full text: IJIRES_441_Final.pdf Online version [Bibtex]