The Effectiveness of Substituting Locally Available Materials in Teaching Chemistry in Nigeria: A Case for Science Education in Developing Countries

This article investigates the effectiveness of improvising locally available materials for teaching chemistry in Nigeria, as a case for a culture of improvisation for teaching the sciences in developing countries. The scarcity and cost of imported materials for teaching science has remained a major challenge to teaching sciences in developing countries, and the fact that many teachers from developing countries tend to wait for these imported materials before they can teach continues to present a set‐back for science education in many non‐Western nations. In this experimental study, second year students in 3 Nigerian Senior Secondary schools in the state of Lagos, Nigeria, were sampled to determine whether there will be a significant difference in their performance when taught using imported materials compared to when taught using local substitutes. The study reveals that whereas their attitudes towards local materials may not be as positive as their attitudes towards imported materials, their performances did not differ when taught with either, as long as they were unaware of which material was local or imported. The result of this study proved that science education will flourish if teachers in Nigeria, and probably other developing countries, can begin to improvise local materials for science instruction.