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.

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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.

Poor performance of students in chemistry shows that they are having difficulties in learning, mastering the content, and applying what they have learned in examinations. The purpose of this study was to find out the difference in (a) retention of information by students taught nuclear chemistry using the culturo-techno-contextual approach (CTCA) and lecture; (b) retention of information by male and female students taught nuclear chemistry using CTCA, and (c) the interaction effects of gender and method on retention of information by students taught nuclear chemistry using CTCA and lecture. Learning theories of Vygotsky’s constructivism theory, Ausubel’s theory of meaningful learning, and CTCA’s philosophical framework were adopted. This study used explanatory sequential mixed methods; quasi-experimental research design was adopted. A total of 91 senior secondary II students (SS2) (equivalent of grade 11 in the American system) participated. Split-half was used to test the reliability of the nuclear chemistry achievement test (NCAT), and a Spearman–Brown of unequal length coefficient value of 0.80 was obtained. A statistically significant difference was found in the retention of information by students taught nuclear chemistry using CTCA and lecture [F(1,88) = 263.06; p = 0.00] which was in favor of the CTCA group (experimental). A statistically significant difference was not found for gender [F(1,46) = 0.39; p = 0.53]. The statistical interaction effect of method and gender was not significant [F(1,86) = 0.25; p = 0.62]. We recommended that the use of CTCA should be adopted by chemistry teachers in secondary schools to enhance learning.

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