A comparison of Jamaican high school students' conceptions on nutrition and reproduction

Abstract

This study compared the level of knowledge of Grade 9 and 11 students on nutrition and reproduction, as well as the effects of certain independent variables on their conceptions of the two concepts. A biology test on nutrition and reproduction, an adopted science attitude scale, and an adapted sociocultural attitude scale were administered to a sample of 522 students (249 Grade 9 and 273 Grade 11; 226 male, 296 female) randomly selected from 10 high schools in Jamaica. Results of the data analysis showed that: 1) the students' knowledge of the two biological concepts was quite low; 2) Grade 11 students performed significantly better than Grade 9 students on both concepts; 3) there was no significant difference in the performance of the boys and girls; 4) students in the urban schools performed significantly better than their rural counterparts; 5) there was a significant difference in the students' performance on nutrition due to differences in their attitudes to science but not on reproduction; 6) there was no significant difference in performance on nutrition due to differences in their sociocultural attitudes, but there was a significant difference in their performance on reproduction; 7) there was no significant difference in the performance of male and female Grade 11 students, but female Grade 9 students significantly outscored their male counterparts; 8) there was no significant difference in the performance of male and female Grade 9 students, and male and female Grade 11 students on reproduction; and 9) Grade 11 students with low and average attitudes towards science performed significantly better on reproduction and nutrition than Grade 9 students with similar attitudes; there was no significant difference on the performance of Grade 9 and 11 students whose attitudes to science were high on both concepts