A comparison of secondary schools students’ levels of conception of qualitative and quantitative inorganic analysis

Abstract

This study constructed a two tier multiple choice questions to assess the levels of conception of students in qualitative and quantitative inorganic analysis. The study is an ex-post facto. The population consisted of all S.S.S.3 students in Ibadan south-west local government area of Oyo state, Nigeria. The sample is made of five public and five private schools selected from the local government and a total of 500 students attempted the test. The data were analysed using Analysis Of Variance and Tukey to ascertain the direction of difference in the three levels of conception. Results showed that there was a significant difference in the three levels of conception by the secondary school students in Chemistry. More students were discovered to be at the macroscopic level which was the farthest from the meaningful learning of the concepts. Furthermore, very few were at the submicroscopic and symbolic levels of conception which was the closest to the meaning of those concepts in qualitative and quantitative analysis. Recommendations based on the importance of proper and high level of conception were made.