It is apparent to anyone who has taught science in secondary schools that a substantial percentage of students find the subject difficult: What is the cause of difficulty? There is season to believe that part of this difficulty is associated with stud...
It is apparent to anyone who has taught science in secondary schools that a substantial percentage of students find the subject difficult: What is the cause of difficulty? There is season to believe that part of this difficulty is associated with students` intellectual development as descrifed by Piaget. To investigate the difficulty students face with learning science in the light of Piagetian developmental theory, the stages of the intellectual development of the secondary school students were assessed in this study using the instrument called Group Assessment of Logical Thinking(GALT). The results of this study showed that more than 60% of 7th and 8th grade students were Classified as concrete operational level. It was also found that only 20% of the students from 9th through 11th grade were formal operational stage, while about 40% of them were still at concrete operational stage. This study showed that there was a significant main effect on the intellectual development of the students by grade. However, it showed that at 0.5 level of significance there was no main effect by sex although mean scores of male on the assessment were higher than those of female.