THE EFFECT OF INSTRUCTION ON SOCIOCULTURAL BELIEFS HINDERING THE LEARNING OF SCIENCE

Although recent studies have shown that the sociocultural characteristics which children in non‐western society bring into the classroom from their environment create a wedge between what they are taught and what they learn, very little has been done to solve the problem. A learner who is not positively disposed to, or has a socio‐cultural background that is indifferent to, learning science would find it hard to learn science effectively. This study investigated whether instruction through the use of the socio‐cultural mode has any significant effect on students' attitude towards the learning of science. The sample consisted of 600 senior secondary year‐one students (442 boys, 158 girls) from 15 secondary schools in Nigeria. The Socio‐Cultural Environment Scale (SCES) and the Biology Achievement Test (BAT) were used to measure the change in attitude and achievement of subjects in a pretest‐posttest situation after a six‐week treatment. Evidence was found to support the hypothesis that science instruction which deliberately involves the discussion of socio‐cultural views about science concepts engenders positive attitudes towards the study of science. The findings also indicate that anthropomorphic and mechanistic views can be presented in such a way as to promote positive attitudes towards the study of science in traditional cultures. Copyright © 1991 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company