Gender and Science-Technology-Society Literacy Level of Secondary School Science Students

The study was designed to ascertain the influence of gender on the level of Science-Technology-Society (STS) literacy of secondary school science students in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State. The study employed a descriptive survey design. A total of 1, 200 senior secondary school science students drawn by stratified random sampling technique were used. Two research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a 40-item Science-Technology-Society Literacy Scale (STSLS) developed by the researcher. This was validated by experts and reliability coefficient using Cronbach Alpha was found to be 0.79. Data collected were analysed using mean and t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that male students indicated significantly higher level of STS literacy than their female counterparts in the identified STS literacy clusters. The study recommended amongst others that teachers should adopt the STS literacy approach in the teaching of science and technology. Also, conscious efforts should be made to encourage females to participate actively in science and technology lessons.