STUDENTS RANKING OF AND OPINIONS ABOUT THE STANDARDS OF LEARNING IN NIGERIAN SCIENCE-EDUCATION PROGRAM

The purpose of this study was to investigate how postsecondary school science education students rank some identified science education prog ram standards, as well as to seek their opinions regarding their perce ption of the desirability and achievement of the standards in Nigeria. A total of 265 final-year science education students in 10 colleges o f education selected through stratified random sampling participated i n the study. The Science Education Program Assessment Model containing 13 identified program standards of science education was used for dat a gathering. The instrument developed for use in Virginia State scienc e education and adapted for the Nigerian situation was found to be hig hly reliable using the internal consistency and test-retest procedures . The results indicated that encouraging students to become self-direc ted learners and emphasizing the utilization of scientific values were prioritized as first and last, respectively. Paired t-test comparing opinions of the students about the desirability and achievement of sta ndards indicated significant differences at p < .01. No significant ge nder differences were found in the study sample's perception of the de sirability and achievement of the science education program standards in Nigeria.