Some Socio‐cultural Factors Militating against Drift towards Science and Technology in Secondary Schools

Abstract

Although it is a truism that the natural sciences do transcend cultural and national boundaries, the issue of the effect of culture on the teaching and learning of science continues to preoccupy the minds of researchers. The learning of the natural sciences calls into question, very often, beliefs and practices that are part of the contemporary culture in an environment. Within our own culture and other non‐Western environments, the effects of socio‐cultural factors seem to exert a very strong effect on the learning and teaching of science. This study was carried out to ascertain what socio‐cultural factors within our environment militate against the learning and teaching of science in the secondary school. A 30‐item Socio‐Cultural Environment Scale (SCES) was developed and used to collect the data in the study. The instrument has a reliability of 0#lb92. Class four and five secondary school students (470 boys, 237 girls, totalling 707) of biology, chemistry and physics from eight randomly selected secondary schools in eight states of Nigeria formed the sample of the study. The analysis of the data indicated that socio‐cultural factors such as authoritarianism, goal structure, the African world‐view, societal expectation and sacredness of science have significant effects on the learning of science. Based on these results, implications and recommendations to science teachers and science teaching have been outlined.