SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS (HOTS) IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA

Abstract

This study aims at finding out science teachers’ perception and attitude toward HOTS in senior secondary schools in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The study employed descriptive research design. The population of this study consisted of senior Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory, Abu. The total number of public and private Senior Secondary School are one hundred and seven (107) with one thousand, two hundred and thirty five science teachers as total population for the study. Seven hundred and seventeen are female science teachers and five hundred and eighteen are female science teachers. Multistage sampling technique was adopted. Firstly, cluster sampling techniques was used to group the schools into area councils. Secondly, is stratified random sampling techniques was used to select one hundred and eleven (111) science teachers from private senior secondary schools and one hundred and eighty science teachers from public senior secondary schools given a total of 291 science teachers. Thirty items were developed by the researcher and used for data collection. Construct and criterion validity of the instrument were established using z- test. The reliability was found to be 0.84 and 0.85 respectively. The data collected from the sample teachers were analysed using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 21.0. The findings shows that there is no significant difference between science teachers’ perception and attitude towards higher order thinking skills. The following recommendations were made; The curriculum should be revised to include more opportunities for students to develop HOTS. Schools should provide more resources, such as textbooks and manipulative, to help teachers implement HOT