Effect of Culturally Responsive Science Pedagogy on Achievement and Attitude of Secondary Students in Plateau State

This study investigated the effect of culturally responsive science pedagogy on the academic achievement and attitudes of senior secondary students in Plateau State, Nigeria. Culturally responsive pedagogy incorporates students' cultural knowledge, community context, and indigenous frameworks into instruction, potentially reducing the cultural alienation that undermines science engagement for many students in multicultural North Central contexts. A quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group arrangement was used. Four secondary schools in Jos North and Mangu Local Government Areas participated, with two assigned to the culturally responsive condition and two to conventional instruction over nine weeks. Science lessons were redesigned to incorporate local Berom, Hausa, and Anaguta cultural references in contexts relevant to Biology and Chemistry topics. A Science Achievement Test and a Science Attitude Scale were administered, with reliability coefficients of 0.82 and 0.80. Analysis of Covariance was applied. Results indicated significantly higher achievement and more positive science attitudes in the culturally responsive group. Students from minority ethnic backgrounds showed the largest gains. The study contributes to the thin empirical base on culturally responsive science education in multicultural Nigerian contexts and recommends that Science teachers receive training in cultural integration pedagogy alongside provision of culturally contextualised curriculum supplements. Keywords: culturally responsive pedagogy, science achievement, attitude, Plateau State, multicultural education.