Prevalent Errors in Senior Secondary School Science Practical as Perceived by Science Teachers in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The study identified prevalent errors in science practical as perceived by science teachers in senior secondary schools using descriptive research of the survey type. The participants were 243 science teachers selected from Ekiti State public senior secondary schools, through multi-stage sampling procedure. An instrument titled Perceived Prevalent Errors Questionnaire (PPEQ) was used to collect data from science teachers across the three senatorial districts of Ekiti State. The data collected were collated and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics involving frequency counts, percentages and Analysis of Variance. The results of the study revealed among others that Personal errors, Instrumental errors, Observation errors, Systematic errors, Random errors, Calculation errors, Graph errors, errors in Drawing and Gender related Errors were perceived as prevalent errors during science practical in senior secondary schools while Environmental errors appeared to be less prevalent across the three core-fields of science. The results further revealed that errors in science practical were most prevalent in physics. It was therefore recommended among others, that science teachers should ensure that sufficient time for practical classes is accommodated on the school time table on weekly basis and that more attention is paid to the individual student in the practical classes so as to help them develop interest in the mastery of science practical content which could help to reduce errors during practical and ensure accuracy of results of laboratory experiments in science. Keywords: Science Practical, Prevalence, Errors, Accuracy,Special Issue, Issue:6, Vol.#3, June 2021, www.ijarbas.co