SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS’ ACQUISITION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF PHYSICS STUDENTS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ONNA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of science process skills acquisition on academic performance of physics students. In order to achieve the purpose, three research questions were raised and the two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 1450 senior secondary schools two students (SS2) physics students in all the 9 Public Secondary Schools in the study area. The sample for the study was 100 senior secondary schools two (SS2) students. The instrument was titled Science Process Skills Acquisition and Academic Performance of Physics Student's Questionnaire (SPSAAPPSQ). The questionnaire constructed by the researcher was subjected to face validation using two experts, one Physics education experts and one Measurement and Evaluation expert, all from the Department of Science Education, Faculty of Education in Akwa Ibom State University. Cronbach Alpha was used to establish the reliability to coefficient of the instrument which yielded 0.80. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and paired sample t-test statistics. The findings of the study revealed that the level of science process skills acquisition among physics students in senior secondary schools in Onna Local Government Area was moderate. There is no significant influence of basic process skills acquisition on the academic performance of physics students in senior secondary schools. There is no significant influence of integrated process skills acquisition on academic performance of physics students in senior secondary schools. It was recommended among others that teachers should adopt innovative teaching strategies to enhance the acquisition of science process skills and their application to academic learning.