Study Habits and Academic Performance of Science Education Undergraduates in Rivers State University, Nigeria

Abstract

Aims: This study investigated the study habits and academic performance of science education undergraduates in Rivers State University. Survey Design: Descriptive survey design was adopted. Place of Study: Department of Science Education, Faculty of Education Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria between May and November, 2021 Methodology: The sample comprised 182 science education undergraduates form first year to final year. The instruments were Science Undergraduates Study Habits Inventory and Cumulative Grade Point Average. The study habits inventory was subjected to face and content validation by two lecturers in Department of Science Education and one lecturer in Measurement and Evaluation and reliability coefficient established by Alpha Cronbach method to be 0.76. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using independent t-test and Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient. Results: Results of this study showed that science education undergraduate exhibit bad study habits. Also, there was no significant difference between male and female undergraduates’ study habits while a significant difference between first and final year undergraduate study habits was found. Further evidence revealed a significant relationship between study habits and academic performance of science education undergraduates. Conclusion: Bad study habits of science education undergraduates  contributes  to their poor performance in examinations. There exist a  significant difference in study habits with regards to gender (male and female) and class level (first and final year) while there was significant relationship between study habits and academic performance of science education undergraduate.