Investigation of perceived concept difficulty, interest and academic achievement in chemistry among secondary school students in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract This study investigated perceived concept difficulty, interest and academic achievement in Chemistry among secondary school students in Cross River State, Nigeria. The study was guided by one research question and one null hypothesis. An ex-post-facto research design was adopted. The population comprised 8,702 Senior Secondary School III Chemistry students, from which a sample of 1,150 students was selected using a multistage sampling technique. Three instruments were used for data collection: the Perceived Concept Difficulty in Chemistry Inventory (PCDCI), the Student Chemistry Interest Scale (SCIS), and the Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT). The instruments were validated by experts, and their reliability coefficients were 0.70, 0.90 and 0.72, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicated that students generally perceived Chemistry concepts as moderately difficult and moderately interesting. Perceived concept difficulty did not significantly influence students’ academic achievement when considered independently. However, interest in Chemistry had a strong and significant influence on academic achievement, demonstrating its importance in improving learning outcomes. The combined influence of gender, school location, and age on academic achievement was statistically significant, indicating an interaction effect among these demographic variables. The study concluded that students’ interest is a stronger predictor of achievement than perceived concept difficulty, while demographic factors jointly influence learning outcomes. It was recommended that teachers should adopt engaging instructional strategies and real-life applications to enhance students’ interest, and educational stakeholders should address contextual disparities affecting Chemistry learning. Keywords: Academic achievement, Age, Gender, Interest in Chemistry, Perceived concept difficulty and School location.