Abstract

It has been noted that students in government technical colleges are not well disposed to the study of chemistry. This is evidenced by the general performance of students inNational Technical Certificate (NTC) and National Business Certificate (NBC) results.  For instance, it was observed in one of the four government technical colleges in Imo State that, out of a total of 122 students who took chemistry in the 2007 NTC examination, only 4 students had credit (C6) while the rest of 118 students had ordinary pass and failure grades. The attitude of students to this subject can influence its study. There are no conclusive variables known to be responsible for the negative attitude of the students to the study of Chemistry. The researcher wonders whether it may be due to the following variables; students’ occupational aspiration; teachers’ method of teaching; students’ intelligence; influence of family on the students; teachers’ qualification.  Five research questions and hypotheses were formulated and each focused on the identified variables. The researcher prepared and administered questionnaires to 277 students, out of a total of 2800 students in the four technical colleges in Imo State, to determine their responses.  Correlational technique was used to ascertain the extent each of the identified variables is related to the students’ attitude to chemistry. T-test statistic was used to find out if there is significant relationship between students attitude to chemistry and each of the identified variables.  It was observed that, four of the variables have significant correlation with students’ attitude to chemistry while one of them has no significant correlation with students’ attitude to chemistry. The researcher therefore recommends among other things that, schools’ guidance counsellor should be made to organize regular career guidance to the students.

Key words: occupational aspiration, teaching method, student intelligence and family influence on students.