The study examined the effect of Concept mapping learning strategies on the learning outcomes of students in Chemistry. It compared the effectiveness of the use of different concept mapping strategies (hierarchical, flowchart and spider) used as advance organizers on students' performance and examined the attitudes of students towards the use of the concept mapping strategies in teaching the mole concept an important concept in Chemistry in the secondary schools. The study adopted the pretest-posttest-control group quasi experimental design. The population for the study comprised of Senior Secondary School class II (SSSII) students in Ife Central Local Government Area of Osun state, Nigeria. The Chemistry students in their intact classes in three randomly selected senior public secondary schools in the local government area were used for the study. A total of one hundred and thirty two ( 132) ssII chemistry students formed the sample for the study. The age range of the students was between 13 and 17years. The three schools were coeducational. The schools selected were randomly assigned to the treatment groups. Two research instruments were used for the study. These are; Problem Solving Achievement Test in Chemistry (PSATC) and Questionnaire on Attitude of Students towards Concept Mapping (QACSCM). The PSATC consists of 25-item multiple choice questions with five options constructed to serve as pretest to ascertain equivalence of ability of subjects and as posttest to determine the effect of the treatment on ability to solve numerical problems in chemistry based on the mole concept. The QACSCM consists of 10-item questionnaire, designed to find out the attitude of the students towards the use of concept mapping strategy in learning chemistry. The reliability coefficient of the PSATC was 0.92 while that of QACSCM was 0.66. The two instruments were validated and reliability determined. The supplementary instructional package was the use of three types of concept maps (hierarchical, flowchart and spider) presented to the students as advance organizer. Results showed that there was no significant difference F = 1.19; p = 0.24 > 0.05) in the performances of the students exposed to either Hierarchical, Flowchart or Spider Concept Mapping strategies when used as advance organizers. This implies that using any of the concept mapping strategies as advance organizers produced a similar effect on the students' performance in their problem solving abilities. Result also indicated that there was no significant difference in the students' attitude to the concept mapping strategies. That is, those students that were taught with concept mapping strategies have similar attitudes to the strategies (F = 0.69; p = 0.46). It is therefore concluded that the various types of concept maps used in this study were effective and students had similar attitude to the maps.

This paper took a critical look at the new global face and challenges it poses on nation's curriculum development and classroom learning. It identified conceptual framework of globalization, its critique and importance of the need for a paradigm shift from the old established order. Suggested reasons why globalization may not match curriculum development in Nigeria in this century were also discussed.

This study compared the effectiveness of Confidence Scoring Method (CSM) and Logical-choice Weight Method (LWM) of scoring objective tests in Chemistry. It examined which of the two scoring methods is more effective, reliable and valid. These were with a view to enhancing the reliability and validity of Chemistry objective test for standard assessment. The population for the study comprised of Senior Secondary School two (SSS II) students in Osun State. The sample consists of 280 SSSII Chemistry Students in their intact classes from four randomly selected schools and in four randomly selected local government areas of the state. The classes were randomly assigned to the two scoring methods. The instruments used for the study were Chemistry Multiple-choice Test type A and B (CMTA and CMTB). The 40-item Chemistry multiple-choice test was administered on the students in each school. Two scoring methods were used to score the test items. Data collected were analyzed using formula and Fisher z-test. Results obtained revealed that significant difference existed in the reliability coefficient of CSM and LWM of scoring (z 2 =7.82; p<0.05). Also, a significant difference existed between CSM and LWM in the validity coefficient (z 2 =5.2; p<0.05). It was found that CSM was better in the reliability and validity of the test scores ((CSM: z=2.903; LWM: z=0.847 (for reliability) and CSM: z=2.568; LWM: z=0.239 (for validity)). It was therefore concluded that CSM could be used to authentically assess Chemistry students' performance and able to identify students with genuine learning difficulties.