Influence of Selected Social Factors on Students’ Attitude towards Chemistry

The study investigated the influence of selected social factors influencing the students’ attitude towards Chemistry in Nyamaiya division, Nyamira county, Kenya. The study adopted an ex-post facto design and the target population comprised all secondary school students in Nyamaiya division. Simple random sampling will be used to select 300 respondents from a total population of 2890 secondary school students. Questionnaires were used to collect data. Data was analyzed by inferential techniques such as Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The hypotheses were tested at α = 0.05 significance level. The findings revealed that there was a statistically significant influence between the teacher’s characteristics and the students’ attitude towards Chemistry. However, students’ career interest and peers had no influence on the students’ attitudes towards chemistry. The Ministry of Education should develop in – service programmes and refresher courses for teachers that emphasize the need to adopt creative and motivating methods of teaching and the importance of being available to the students. This will in turn help students develop positive attitude which in turn leads to better academic achievement. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p177