UNDERGRADUATE CHEMISTRY STUDENT-TEACHERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS TEACHING PROFESSION AND ITS EFFECT ON THEIR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate undergraduate chemistry student-teachers’ attitude towards teaching profession and its effects on their academic achievement.Adescriptive survey design was used and the population was all the Bachelor of Science Education –B.Sc.Ed (Chemistry) students of the University of Jos. The study sample consisted of 80, 200-level undergraduate students (40 males and 40 females). Data was obtained using an undergraduate teachers’attitude inventory (US-TAI) with r = 0.78 which was a twenty item Likert instrument. The researcher also obtained the cumulative results of the academic achievement of the students from the academic office for comparison with their responses to the US-TAI. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed among others, that majority of the undergraduate prospective chemistry teachers had positive attitude towards the teaching profession. There was no significant difference in the attitude of male and female undergraduate student-teacherstowards the teaching profession.The attitude of male and female prospective teachers did not differ significantly. There was, however, a significant difference betweenthe mean academic achievement of prospective chemistry teachers that have positive attitude and those with negative attitude towards teaching profession. The study recommended that there is the need to improve undergraduate chemistry student-teachers’ attitudes to increase their academic achievement. Factors responsible for favorable or unfavorable attitude of prospective teachers towards the teaching profession should be investigated. Finally, an attitude check should be carried out onprospective chemistry teachers before admission for undergraduate study in chemistry