Analysis of the Knowledge and Attitudes of Primary and Junior Secondary School Teachers Towards Space Science and Technology

Paper number

IAC-13,E1,1,5,x19470

Author

Mrs. Oluwatoyin Ajayi, African Regional Center for Space Science and Technology Education in English (ARCSSTE-E), Nigeria

Year

2013

Abstract

This study was carried out to analysis the knowledge and attitude of primary and junior secondary school teachers about space science and technology. It was also to find out the extent of space science representation in curriculum of some National Certificate in Education (NCE) science courses. This is necessary, as the nation is looking forward to the introduction of space science either as a separate subject or as part of the sciences taught in schools, the need to examine how knowledgeable the teachers are and their attitude towards its introduction into Nigeria schools brought about this study.
A total of 220 teachers were randomly selected from six states in the country, out of which 195 were valid for analysis for level of knowledge of teachers and 197 for attitude of teachers. A questionnaire was used for data collection and descriptive method was used. 
From the analysis, it was showed an average primary and junior secondary school teacher in Nigeria has little or no knowledge about almost all the topics highlighted in the instrument. It was also discovered that teachers are not conversant with new discoveries in the space world such as the International Space Station, Telemedicine and space debris.
Also the study showed that, the teachers have positive attitude towards space science generally, 193 teachers representing 98.0% are of the opinion that space science can be introduced into teachers training curriculum, 192 teachers representing 97.5% of the teachers are of the opinion that space science is relevant to us in Nigeria for our technological advancement. 
On the assessment of the NCE Curriculum to find out the extent of space science representation, it was discovered that to some extent, there is a good representation of space science content in the curriculum. Some courses in the subjects reviewed could however be directly or indirectly related to space science and technology.

Abstract document

IAC-13,E1,1,5,x19470.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

(absent)