TEACHING TECHNIQUES, STUDY HABITS, SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT AND GENDER FACTORS AS DETERMINANTS OF COGNITIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF PHYSICS STUDENTS IN NIGERIAN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This study examined teaching techniques, study habits, school environment and gender factors as determinants of cognitive achievement of physics students in Nigerian senior secondary schools. A non-randomized pretest-posttest control group with 3x3x2x2 factorial arrangement in quasi-experimental design was adopted. A total of 278 senior secondary two (SS 2) Physics students took part in the study. Multistage sampling technique was adopted. Two researcher-made instruments; Physics Achievement Test (PAT) and Study Habit Questionnaire (SHQ) with internal consistencies of 0.76 and 0.94 using Kuder-Richardson formula 21 and Cronbach Alpha respectively were used to gather data for the study. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyse the data collected. The results showed that teaching technique with an index of the relationship of 0.37 (0.612) has the most facilitating effect in the enhancement of students' cognitive achievement in the concept of heat energy in Physics. This is seconded by study habit with an index of the relationship of 0.16 (0.402), followed by school environment with an index of the relationship of 0.03 (0.182) while gender with an index of the relationship of 0.0016 (0.042) has the least facilitative effect. The result also indicated that there is no significant interaction effect of teaching techniques, study habit, school environment and gender on students' cognitive achievement in the concept of heat energy in Physics. This implies that teaching techniques (guided discovery and demonstration) are equally good for both male and female Physics students and can also be used effectively in both urban and rural schools. 92% of the total variance in the cognitive achievement of students in the concept of heat energy in Physics is attributable to the joint influence of teaching techniques, study habit, school environment and gender. It is recommended among others that, the school should enrich the students' learning environment to help them in hands-on activities which will facilitate good cognitive achievement in Physics and other academic pursuits. Students also should be taught and encouraged to plan their time properly and should get acquainted with the use of library. Also, guided discovery approach should be integrated into Nigerian senior secondary school Physics curriculum as one of the effective teaching techniques.