Effect of gender on attitude among secondary school students taught thermal energy using metacognitive scaffolding teaching strategy

This study investigated the effect of gender on attitude among secondary school students taught physics concept using metacognitive scaffolding teaching strategy in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria. The study asked two research questions and postulated two null hypotheses which were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Quasi experimental research design involving non randomized control pretest-posttest design was utilized. The study population consisted of 2699 Senior Secondary II (SSII) physics students drawn from 54 public SSII physics students in FCT, Abuja. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select 75 SSII physics students from two SS as sample for the study. One instrument consisting of Attitude to Thermal Energy Questionnaire (ATEQ) was used for data collection. The data collected from this instrument were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The research question was answered using mean and standard deviation while the null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Findings from the analyzed data showed that physics students taught using metacognitive scaffolding teaching strategy had better attitude towards thermal energy than their counterparts in the control group. Also, male physics students did not have a better attitude towards thermal energy than their female counterpart when taught usingmetacognitive scaffolding teaching strategy. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that physics teachers should be encouraged to teach using metacognitive scaffolding teaching strategy. Government and educational agencies, curriculum planners and developers should encourage the training of physics teachers on metacognitive scaffolding teaching during seminars, workshops and conferences.