Assessment of Scientific Literacy Skills of College of Education Students in Nigeria

Abstract

The study randomly sampled one hundred and thirty-three integrated science students of a College of Education to assess their scientific literacy skills. The study was a survey design method. Data for the study was obtained through both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The research instruments were the Scientific Literacy Skills Test (SLST) and a semi-structured interview protocol. Eight skills were investigated which were grouped into three clusters. The study provided answers to three research questions. Data obtained were analyzed using the statistical tools of the t-test, descriptive statistics and thematic coding. Findings showed that students did not possess the scientific literacy skills required for them to function effectively after graduation in society. Besides, male students possessed more scientific literacy skills than their female counterparts in all three clusters of skills examined. Also, finding revealed that students used scientific literacy skills to solve real-life problems such as taking decisions and solving security problems. The paper made some recommendations for further study to enhance students' scientific literacy skills.

The Nigerian Certificate in Education (Nce): Science Graduates' Employability

“…Funding is critical to any successful project. previous studies indicate that inadequate funding is a significant problem of teacher education in Nigeria (Akindutire & Ekundayo, 2012;Matthew, 2013;Clement & Mowette, 2017;Gambo & Fasanmi, 2019). Nigeria's annual education budget is always low compared to other countries in Africa (Ubogu & Veronica, 2018).…”

“…The implication of this is that many of these graduates are not creative. Problem-solving requires some level of creative thinking (Aldous, 2005;Hu, Xiaohui, & Shieh, 2017). Creativity is essential for science education to enhance students' entrepreneurial skills for job creation (Aina, Nathaniel, & Ayodele, 2019).…”

“…Creativity is essential for science education to enhance students' entrepreneurial skills for job creation (Aina, Nathaniel, & Ayodele, 2019). The reason most colleges of education science students could not do any other job aside from teaching is because of the issue of creativity (Aina, & Abdulwasiu, 2018 (Aina, Abdulrahman & Ayodele, 2020).Unfortunately, many NCE science education graduates lacked many of these skills, which suggests the reason for a high rate of unemployment among these graduates (Aina, 2017). Most Nigerian science education graduates lack the skills required to work in industries: even with their fantastic certificates because they lacked the creative abilities (Bayyat, Orabi & Altaieb, 2016).…”

“…The duration of the college of education, educational programme is three years, and the certificate awarded after passing prescribed exams is the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCCE, 2012;Adetayo, 2016). The objective of the college of education programmes is to produce teachers who will teach at the primary school and the basic junior secondary schools (Akindutire & Ekundayo, 2012;Oritsebemigho, 2014). Nevertheless, research studies show that the NCE science has been facing many challenges that make the holders either underemployed or unemployed.…”

“…Nevertheless, research studies show that the NCE science has been facing many challenges that make the holders either underemployed or unemployed. Some of these problems are lack of adequate teaching resources, quality teachers, corruption, admission policy, and many others (Okoroma, 2009;Aiyai, 2013;Asiyai, 2015;Amini-Philips & Ogbuagwu, 2017;Nwaokugha, & Ezeugwu, 2017;Aina, & Joseph, 2017). One of these challenges not often mentioned in previous studies is the problem of the employability of the science education graduates, which might be due to the teacher education challenges.…”