There have been few studies on topic difficulty in the public administration curriculum of African universities. This is further problematized by non-existent literature on the relationships between gender, future career interest and country of study on student difficulty in the study of public administration. This is a gap in the public administration literature which this study attempts to fill. The work is significant to the extent that our understanding of ‘where the shirt tights’ regarding topics that students find difficult will guide teachers and other stakeholders in applying appropriate remedies. The purpose of the study is to find out (a) what topics in public administration students find difficult to learn; (b) if there are statistically significant relationship between gender and concept difficulty in the study of public administration in African universities; (c) if there are statistically significant relationship between student’s career interest and concept difficulty in the study of public administration; and (d) if there are statistically significant relationship between country of study and concept difficulty in the study of public administration. Quantitative method was employed with sample (N = 650). The study reports bureaucracy, decentralization, public policy and politics as moderately difficult; significant relationship between gender and concept difficulty; and significant relationship between student future career interest and concept difficulty. We suggest curriculum development that would improve students’ knowledge by laying more emphasis on the perceived difficult areas in the study of public administration, gender, and encourage early students’ interest in public sector career choices.

This study described the implementation procedure (step-by-step) of the culturo-techno-contextual approach (CTCA) in the classroom with concrete curricular examples for each step. The study then proceeded to explore the potency of CTCA on nuclear chemistry, a traditionally perceived difficult concept among secondary school students in Nigeria, as obtained from the survey phase of the study. Using a quasi-experimental research design, we had a total of 221 senior secondary school two (SS2, the equivalent of grade 11) students from two schools in educational district V of Lagos State, Nigeria, who participated in the experimental phase of the study. After the pretest exercise for both the experimental and comparison groups, we had a four-week treatment where the experimental group was taught with CTCA, and the comparison group was taught with the conventional lecture method. Four weeks after the posttest, a retention test was conducted for both groups using the same Nuclear Chemistry Achievement Test instrument used for the pre-and posttests. Data collected were analyzed using ANCOVA, and the results obtained showed a statistically significant mean difference between the groups [F(1, 218) = 84.12; p < 0.05], indicating that CTCA improved students' performance in nuclear chemistry. We also found no statistically significant difference in the achievement of male and female students in the experimental group. Within the limitations of the study, we concluded that CTCA is a viable culturally relevant tool for teaching chemistry concepts. The future directions of the study were also highlighted.

Chemical safety, a practice of protecting humans and the environment in which they work and live from the deleterious effects of chemical substances, was investigated in this study in Nigerian secondary schools. Using a mixed-method survey, we investigated the awareness level and implementation of the best practices of chemical safety by 1246 senior secondary school chemistry students. Students in rural schools were found to have a lower level of awareness of chemical safety compared to the students in urban schools. Statistically significant differences were found in all except one of the awareness measureswashing hands before practicals and after leaving the chemistry lab. Urban students were more in breach of chemical safety practices than students in rural schools. Most of the observed differences were statistically significant (p < 0.001). Interview (qualitative) data from 20 students show four emerging themes to explain the findings, including a low level of chemistry laboratory resourcing, poor chemical safety training of the teachers, inadequacies in safety tools, charts, and kits, and weak enforcement of safety regulations. Based on the data from the study, recommendations were made for bolstering the awareness level of students in chemical safety and their chemical safety practices. These include the incorporation of chemical safety in the core curriculum, requiring quality assurance entities to enforce resourcing of basic safety equipment to schools, government-directed workshops on the need for chemical safety, and requiring teachers to provide chemical hazards information to students.

This study explored the potency of CTCA in reducing math anxiety and promoting meaningful learning of mathematics among secondary school students. The study adopted a mixed‐method (explanatory sequential) design involving a quasi‐experimental design and individual in‐depth interviews. Participants were drawn from two schools, purposively selected within Lagos state educational district V. Three instruments: Set Theory Achievement Test, Math Anxiety Scale and Students' Perception about CTCA Interview Guide were used to collect the quantitative and qualitative data subsequently. The experimental group (102 students) was taught using the culturo‐techno‐contextual approach while the control group (106 students) was taught with the traditional lecture method. Treatment lasted six weeks after which posttest and retention test (four weeks after posttest) were conducted. MANCOVA was used to analyze the quantitative data. The results obtained suggest that CTCA reduces math anxiety and enhanced learning achievement [Pillai's Trace = 0.34 (F = 53.09; p<0.01)] more effectively than the traditional teaching method. No significant gender difference was also found in the achievement of the experimental group. Students' perception about the use of CTCA was generally positive. Within the scope and limitations of the study, it was recommended that CTCA should be adopted by secondary school teachers in teaching mathematics concepts.