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Abstract
This study investigated the effect of school location on students' learning outcomes in practical physics. A pretest, posttest, control group, quasi experimental design was used. Three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha levels for each of the three dependent variables. The sample consisted of 526 Senior Secondary School II physics students drawn from eight co-educational schools in Ibadan. Simple random sampling was used to select four local government areas (LGAs) from Ibadan city and four local government areas from Ibadan less city. Purposive sampling was used to select a school from each of the eight selected LGAs. An intact SSII science class in each selected school was picked at random. Four valid and reliable instruments were used to collect the data. Analysis of covariance and Scheffe Post Hoc were used for data analysis. Results showed that school location had a significant main effect on students' cognitive attainment [F ^sub (1,526)^ =50.60; P <0.05]; performance in practical skills [F ^sub (1,526)^ = 16.62; P <0.05]; but there was no significant main effect on attitude. Physics teachers are advised to make genuine effort to encourage students in less city schools. Educational stakeholders should encourage teachers and students in rural schools by making available the infrastructures, equipments, materials, etcetera (that are in city schools) in less city schools.
Keywords: school location, cognitive attainment, attitude, practical skill.
Introduction
Location is the environmental condition around a school which could be urban or rural, (Ezike 1997). The school location is seen in terms of city (urban) and less city (rural). Series of studies have investigated the importance of school location in influencing learning outcomes. Some of these studies examined location planning and their attendant consequences on achievement of students, (Owoeye 2000). School location can affect students' learning outcomes either positively or negatively. Urban environment can be conceptualized as that which has high population density, containing a high variety of beautiful common place views, whereas rural environment is characterized by low population density containing a low variety and isolated place views, (McGiIl and Karn 1997).
Distribution of teachers in the rural schools is not comparable with the urban schools. The number of teachers in rural schools is usually low because teachers do not readily accept postings to rural areas,...