Correlational Analysis between Heath’s Cognitive Preference Styles and Chemistry Achievement among Secondary School Students in Niger State, Nigeria

Yabagi Muhammad, Wushishi D. I.

Abstract


This study investigated correlation between heath’s (1964) model of cognitive preference styles and chemistry achievement among secondary school students in Minna educational zone, Niger state, Nigeria. Research design for this study was ex-post facto design. A total of 269 SS3 chemistry students were sampled from randomly selected schools with a total population of 7,414 students. 2 instruments were used for data collection: Heath cognitive preference test instrument (HCPT) with reliability co-efficient of 0.739 and chemistry achievement record scores (CARS) of 2nd term examination organized and supervised by Niger state ministry of education, 2011/2012 session. The data collected were analyzed to answer a research question and a null hypothesis using mean, standard deviation and Pearson product moment correlation statistics. The findings of the study revealed: (i) that recall cognitive preference style is the most prevalent of the four cognitive preference styles identified by Heath (1964) among senior secondary school chemistry students (ii) students’ preferences of cognitive styles are not significantly correlated with their achievement in chemistry. Based on the findings of this research, some recommendations were offered among which are; (i) the need for classroom teachers to identify cognitive preference styles of their students so as to present learning materials with respect to students’ preferred cognitive styles for positive learning experience and also for the purpose of homogenous or heterogeneous classification of students based on cognitive styles; such classifications may be utilized in the classroom for setting up an affective learning community for efficient teaching and learning of chemistry in particular and science in general.


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