Relationship between students' problem-solving skills and interest in biology in public secondary schools in Anambra State Nigeria
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student interest,
Biology,
correlational study,
secondary education
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Abstract
This study examined the relationship between problem-solving skills and interest in Biology among public secondary school students in Anambra State, Nigeria. A correlational research design was adopted. The population comprised 14,767 Senior Secondary II Biology students in 268 public secondary schools. Multistage sampling yielded 637 students from 18 schools in six local government areas within Awka and Otuocha Education Zones. Data were collected using researcher-developed questionnaires. The instruments underwent face and construct validation, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.80 for the SSRSS and 0.79 for the SBIS. Pearson correlation and simple linear regression were used at the 0.05 significance level. Problem-solving skills showed a very weak positive relationship with Biology interest (r = 0.051, R² = 0.003). The relationship was not statistically significant, F(1, 635) = 1.685, p = 0.195; consequently, the null hypothesis was not rejected. The model explained approximately 0.3% of the variance in Biology interest. Problem-solving skills were therefore not a statistically significant linear predictor of Biology interest among the sampled students.
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References
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