TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
APPROVAL ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
ABSTRACT viii
CHAPTER ONE 1
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1,
1.1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.1.2 Historical background of science subjects 1
1.2 Fields of Science Education 3
1.2.1 Physics Education 3
1.2.2 Chemistry Education 4
1.2.3 Biology Education 4
1.2.4 Pedagogy 4
1.3 The guided-discovery approach to science education 5
1.4 Statement of the Problem 7
1.5 Purpose of the study 7
1.6 Objectives 7
1.6.1 General objective 7
1.6.2 Specific objective 7
1.7 Research Questions 7
1.8 Significance of the study 7
1.9 Scope of the Study 7
1.9.1 Geographical scope 8
1.9.2 Contextual scope 8
1.10 Conceptual framework 9
V I
CHAPTER TWO .10
LITERATURE REVIEW 10
2.0 Introduction 10
2.1 Causes of poor performance in Uganda 10
2.1.1 The teacher effect 10
2.1.2 Qualifications of the teacher and the teaching of mathematics 11
2.2 Theoretical Literature Review 14
2.3 Students’ Attitudes and beliefs 15
2.4 Career choice and mathematics achievement 16
2.5 Teaching methods and students’ performance 20
2.6 Time allocated to the teaching of science subjects 23
CHAPTER THREE 25
THE METhODOLOGY 25
3.1 Research Design 25
3.2 Participants 25
3.3 Instruments 26
3.4Proç~1ure 27
3.5 Ethic~i considerations~ 28
CHAPTER FOUR 29
DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION 29
4.1 Introduction 29
4.1 Table of population 29
CHAPTER FIVE 33
DISCUSSION, SUMMERY AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE STUDY 33
50. Introduction 33
5.1 Discussion 33
5.2 Summary of the study 33’
5.3 Recommendations of the study 34
ABSTRACT This study was entitled on “Institutional causes ofstudents ‘poor performance in science subjects in selected secondary schools in Bulongo sub county in Luuka District”. The purpose ofthis study was to find out the school based causes ofpoor student performance in in selected secondwy schools in Bulongo sub county in Luuka District and how it can be reduced or even solved completely in secondary school children. The research gave suggestions and recommendations on how the government and schools can fight against this challenge in the community such that they can improve student academic performance. It was guided by three objectives which were directed to the general objective as to identzj5’ causes ofpoor performance ofscience subjects in selected secondary schools in Bulongo sub county in Luuka District and to suggest solutions. The study was mainly descrzptive therefore it used qualitative methods in data collection. It also used quantitative methods to calculate andpresent thefigures so as to obtain related findings. The study targeted the students who are have an increasing record of poor performance in class by investigating the factors influencing this performance the four selected secondary schools in Bulongo Sub County in Luuka district. The studyfound out that most students ‘fail because their parents hold them at home to help them in their domestic and business work which leaves students with limited tune to study leading to poor performance in class especially in the final exams (UNEB~,), The researcher recommended thatparents give enough time to students to engage in.~ ‘ieir academic work as a way ofimproving their academic performance and also that students should do their math work and allocate much time to compared to other subjects due to its complexity. Chapter on is the introduction and background ofthe study, Chapter two expounded on the causes ofpoor performance of students in general and overtime, chapter three includes the researcher methodology that the researcher used to come up with the findings in chapter f~nir andJiv