Students’ Level of Scientific Literacy and Academic Performance in Physics Concepts in Rivers State, Nigeria

The vision of every scientific community is the development of scientific literacy of its learners to proffer solutions to compelling scientific demands that is confronted in our everyday engagements. Acquisition of scientific literacy is a yardstick for societal development. Therefore, the study investigated students’ level of scientific literacy and academic performance in Physics concepts. The study adopted the Ex-post facto research design method using 246 SS 3 Physics students selected for the study by random sampling technique in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of River State, Nigeria. Instruments for data collection were “Questionnaire on Scientific Literacy Assessment Template†(QSLAT) with reliability coefficient index of 0.79 and raw scores of SS 3 students for first term 2019/2020 session in Physics. Data was analyzed using Multiple Correlation Analysis (MCA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe post-hoc analysis at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that relationship between level of scientific literacy and students’ academic performance in Physics was statistically significant. Furthermore, the scientific literacy level of Physics students was low because most students were found to have their scientific literacy levels at the Nominal Scientific Literacy (NSL) followed by Functional Scientific Literacy, Structural Scientific Literacy while Multi-Dimensional Scientific Literacy was the least. The study recommended that Physics teachers should adopt instructional strategies that will be devoid of rote memorization but encourage active engagement of students in enhancing scientific literacy among others.