Assessment of study habits of senior secondary school science students in north west zone of Nigeria

The effect of student factors such as their intellectual capability, their attitude to learning, and their general study habit in academic performance are areas not fully investigated by myriad of efforts directed at unraveling causes of abysmal performance by Nigerian students in public examination in recent times. It is as a result that this study was undertaken to assess the study habits of secondary school science students in North West Nigeria, a zone that is considered educationally less advantaged. Consequently, 1,796 students who were offering the basic science subjects (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) in 22 secondary schools in four North West states (Kaduna, kano, Katsina and Zamfara) of Nigeria during the 2011/2012 school session were selected by means of stratified random sampling. The students’ study habits were assessed by administering the Bakare’s (1977) Study Habit Inventory on them and their science scores (academic performance) were obtained from their first term’s school results. The independent t-test and one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics were employed for data analyses that were used to test five null hypotheses stated for the study at alpha value of 0.05. All the null hypotheses were significant, indicating that difference exists between the study habits of male and female, older and younger, private and public schools’, low and high academic performing, and among the students in the four states. It was therefore recommended that school counsellors, teachers, administrators, examination bodies and governments should, among other things, do the following so as to improve students’ study habits - carry out routine study needs assessment of secondary school science students, teach students how to study, and how to prepare and use personal time-table in effective study.