Learner Attitude towards Chemistry, Study Skills and Examination Preparedness: A Case of a Public School in Eastern, Kenya

Abstract

This study intended to test if there was significant difference in chemistry preparedness in terms of attitude towards chemistry, study skills and exam preparedness between boys and girls, between boarders and day scholars and between low and high achievers. Two hundred and eleven (211) subjects participated. A questionnaire was designed to measure preparedness in chemistry in relation to attitude towards chemistry, study skills, and exam preparedness. To address the hypotheses, frequency distributions and other descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations and percentages were used. Independent sample t-tests were performed to address the first and the second hypotheses to determine whether differences between variables existed. The results indicate that there is homogeneity of variance amongst attitude towards chemistry, study skills and exam preparedness. The findings also inform that preparedness in chemistry in terms of attitude towards chemistry, study skills, and exam preparedness is the same in both boys and girls but boys lagged slightly below girls in attitude towards chemistry. There was no significant difference in chemistry preparedness between genders in relation to these variables. Borders and day scholars have similar preparedness in chemistry in terms of attitude, study skills and exam preparedness. The results further show that day scholars have a slightly higher preparedness in chemistry than the boarders. Higher achievers have more positive attitude towards chemistry, better study skills and higher exam preparedness.