Relationship between Information Literacy and Skills as a Determinant to Attitude towards Science Learning among COE Biology Students in Zaria, Nigeria

Abstract

This study is titled "Assessment of Information Literacy Skills as a Determinant of Attitude towards Science Learning among COE Biology Students in Zaria, Nigeria, one of the main causes of students' negative attitudes towards learning science is a lack of information literacy abilities. To achieve this, two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study, among which are: what is the level of information literacy skills of COE Biology students as a determinant towards attitude to science learning and what is the level of relationship between information literacy skills of male and female COE Biology students as a determinant towards attitude to science learning. There is no significance relationship between the levels of information literacy skills as determinants to COE Biology students as a determinant towards attitude to science learning. A survey research design was adopted for this study. The population comprises all the COE II Biology students (3440) in the 2022–2023 academic sessions in FCE Zaria. A sample of 250 students randomly selected for participation was used for the study. A validated instrument called the Information Literacy Skills Attitude Questionnaire (ILSAQ) with a reliability coefficient of 0.75 was used for the data collection. Linear regression analysis was used to test the null hypothesis at P < 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there is a statistically significant difference between levels of information literacy skills and student’s attitudes towards science. The finding further revealed that there is a statistically significant difference between male and female information literacy and student’s attitudes towards science. The researcher thus concluded that acquiring adequate information literacy skills was helpful in enhancing students’ attitudes towards science education. It was therefore recommended that stakeholders in education endeavor to provide the necessary support for information literacy.

Keywords: Information, Skills, Literacy, Science, Learning, and Attitude