Pupils’ Attitude to Basic Science: The Influence of Folklore Play-Way on Primary School Children in Ondo State

Abstract

The role of folklore play-way in this modern era of science education has been relegated, if not in extinction. With educational problems becoming more diverse and complex, the world now realizes that to deal with some of the challenges at hand which are created by modern-type western education, there is need to tap from and utilize folklore play-way of the indigenous people. Based on this premise, this study investigated the influence of folklore play-way Method (FPWM) and traditional lecture method (TLM) on attitudes of children towards Basic science. Two interlinked methods; the phenomenological and Quasi experimental pretest-posttest control group design was used by the researchers to carry out the study. Primary two pupils obtained from the intact classes of the two selected primary schools in Ondo west local government area of Ondo State participated in the study. A validated instrument named Pupils’ Basic Science Attitude Scale (PBSAS) with a reliability coefficient of 0.85 was the main instrument used to collect data for the study. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data collected. The results of this study indicated that there was a significant main effect of methods on attitudes of children using FPWM and TLM, (F = 110.036, p < .05). There was no significant main effect of gender on children’s attitude (F = 0.603, p > .05). Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect of gender and methods on pupils’ attitude (F = 59.5, p < .05) towards Basic science. The study recommended that folklore song-dance play-way needs to be resuscitated at the primary school level and that curriculum planners should incorporate the usage of folklore song-dance play-way method as part of the approved methods of teaching Basic science in the primary schools.