Awareness and Attitudes of Secondary School Students about Physiology Discipline in Southwest Region, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54548/njps.v37i2.13Abstract
Physiology remains one of the core disciplines on which all biological and medical sciences were founded. In Nigeria, it is known that most students study Physiology at the undergraduate level by chance and not by choice and end up performing poorly, which could be mainly due to low awareness and knowledge of the discipline, its opportunities, and prospects. Therefore, this study investigated the awareness, attitude, and knowledge about physiology among senior secondary school students in Southwest Nigeria. A cross-sectional of 544 students in science-based senior secondary schools in south-west Nigeria were sampled. Our results showed a high level of awareness, with television being the dominant medium of information. However, knowledge of Physiology was low, while most of the students also showed interest in knowing more about it. Although gender does not seem to influence the level of knowledge, females had a better attitude towards learning about physiology. Similarly, residence did not affect attitude, howbeit associated with the level of knowledge. In conclusion, the high awareness and low knowledge observed in this study would give insights to educate students at the early stages of education about the opportunity and prospects of Physiology and other science-related disciplines.
References
Alokan, F. B. and Arijesuyo, A. E. (2013) ‘Rural and Urban Differential in Student’s Academic Performance among Secondary School Students In Ondo State, Nigeria’, Journal of Educational and Social Research. doi: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v4n3p213.
Bamise, O. F., Bamise, C. T. and Adedigba, M. A. (2011) ‘Knowledge of HIV/AIDS among secondary school adolescents in Osun state, Nigeria’, Niger J Clin Pract, 14(3), pp. 338–344. doi: 10.4103/1119-3077.86780.
Bulala, T., Ramatlala, M. and Nenty, H. J. (2014) ‘Location as a Factor in the Prediction of Performance in Botswana Junior School Certificate Agriculture Examinations by Continuous Assessment Scores’, Creative Education, 05(01), pp. 11–14. doi: 10.4236/ce.2014.51004.
Charlesworth, T. E. S. and Banaji, M. R. (2019) ‘Gender in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Issues, Causes, Solutions’, J Neurosci, 39(37), pp. 7228–7243. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0475-18.2019.
Dubow, E. F., Boxer, P. and Huesmann, L. R. (2009) ‘Long-term Effects of Parents’ Education on Children’s Educational and Occupational Success: Mediation by Family Interactions, Child Aggression, and Teenage Aspirations’, Merrill Palmer Q (Wayne State Univ Press), 55(3), pp. 224–249. doi: 10.1353/mpq.0.0030.
Faisal, R., Shinwari, L. and Mateen, H. (2016) ‘Evaluation of the academic achievement of rural versus urban undergraduate medical students in pharmacology examinations’, Asian Pacific Journal of Reproduction, 5(4), pp. 317–320. doi: 10.1016/j.apjr.2016.06.002.
Hall, J. E. and Guyton, A. C. (2011) ‘Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology’.
Idonije, E. A. et al. (2014) ‘Physiologist as a Professional. The Mindset, Misconception, and Realities’, International Journal of Community Research, 3(1), pp. 7–11.
JAMB (2016) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination 2016. Joint Admissions And Matriculation Board. Statistics of Choices of Courses in Institution. University Of Calabar, Calabar. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/27870833/Unified_Tertiary_Matriculation_Examination_2016_Joint_Admissions_And_Matriculation_Board_Statistics_of_Choices_of_Courses_in_Institution (Accessed: 17 May 2020).
JAMB (2018a) Graphical Representation of JAMB 2018 UTME Application Statistics By States of Origin and Gender. Available at: https://nigerianscholars.com/school-news/jamb-registration-statistics/ (Accessed: 16 May 2020).
JAMB (2018b) JAMB 2018 UTME Application Statistics By States of Origin and FCT (Top Ten). Available at: https://nigerianscholars.com/school-news/jamb-registration-statistics/ (Accessed: 16 May 2020).
JAMB (2019) Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Releases 2019 UTME Application Statistics by State of Origin. Available at: https://www.myschoolgist.com/ng/jamb-application-statistics/ (Accessed: 17 May 2020).
Kazeem, A., Jensen, L. and Stokes, C. S. (2010) ‘School Attendance in Nigeria: Understanding the Impact and Intersection of Gender, Urban-Rural Residence and Socioeconomic Status’, Comp Educ Rev, 54(2), pp. 295–319. doi: 10.1086/652139.
Lemoine, M. and Pradeu, T. (2018) ‘Dissecting the Meanings of “Physiology” to Assess the Vitality of the Discipline’, Physiology (Bethesda), 33(4), pp. 236–245. doi: 10.1152/physiol.00015.2018.
Mogaji, E. (2019) ‘Types and Location of Nigerian Universities’, Research Agenda Working Papers, 7, pp. 92–103. doi: 10.31124/advance.9722618.v1.
Sabnis, R. et al. (2016) ‘Urban and rural disparity in tobacco use and knowledge about oral cancer among adolescents: An epidemiological survey on 12 and 15-year school going students’, J Int Soc Prev Community Dent, 6(Suppl 3), pp. S226–S231. doi: 10.4103/2231-0762.197200.
Schoon, I. (2016) ‘Teenage job aspirations and career attainment in adulthood: A 17-year follow-up study of teenagers who aspired to become scientists, health professionals, or engineers’, International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25(2), pp. 124–132. doi: 10.1080/01650250042000186.
Sewell, W. H. and Shah, V. P. (1968) ‘Parents’ education and children’s educational aspirations and achievements.’, American sociological review, 33(2). doi: 10.2307/2092387.
Tubbs, R. S. (2015) ‘“Anatomy is to physiology as geography is to history; it describes the theatre of events”’, Clin Anat, 28(2), p. 151. doi: 10.1002/ca.22526.
U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020) Occupational Outlook Handbook, Exercise Physiologists. Available at: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/exercise-physiologists.htm.
UNESCO-IBE (2011) ‘World data on Education’.
Wang, M. T. and Degol, J. L. (2017) ‘Gender Gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Current Knowledge, Implications for Practice, Policy, and Future Directions’, Educ Psychol Rev, 29(1), pp. 119–140. doi: 10.1007/s10648-015-9355-x.
Wilson, D., Greenspan, R. and Wilson, C. (1989) ‘Knowledge about AIDS and self-reported behaviour among Zimbabwean secondary school pupils’, Soc Sci Med, 28(9), pp. 957–961. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(89)90325-0.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Nigerian Journal of Physiological Sciences

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.