A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF UNDERGRADUATES SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS

The concept of science process skills encompasses the conceptual understanding of the basic scientific inquiries that underlie the achievement of the trending science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education being encouraged by governments and educators globally and which Nigeria is not exempted. Nevertheless, the importance of science process skills is well documented in the literature. However, research investigating the variation in science process skills among undergraduates is scarce. Thus, the current study aimed to compare differences in science process skills between undergraduates in public and private tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Two hundred and six undergraduates pooled from public and private tertiary institutions in Kogi State, Nigeria, participated in the study. The independent t-test found no statistically significant difference between the private and public tertiary institution students in SPS, t (204) = 1.147, p = 234. The study attributes this outcome to the poor knowledge of SPS among undergraduates in public and private tertiary educations. Thus, it is recommended that effort should be geared towards imparting SPS knowledge to the learners.