DIGITAL LITERACY AS PREDICATOR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT’S ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY IN ENUGU STATE

Abstract

The study investigated digital literacy as predictor of secondary school student’s academic 
achievement in Chemistry in Enugu State. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the 
study. The population of study was 4934 SS2 Chemistry students. The sample size of the study 
consisted of 347 SS2 Chemistry students 186 male and 161 female. The sample was drawn using 
multistage sampling procedure involving different techniques. Two instruments were used for data 
collection. They are Chemistry Digital Literacy Inventory (CDLI) and Chemistry Achievement 
Test (CAT). CDLI contained 26 item questions developed by the researchers while CAT contained 
40 objective questions. The two instruments were validated by three experts. The reliability of 
(CDLI) was 0.77 using Cronbach alpha while the reliability of (CAT) was 0.77 using Kuder
Richardson 20 formula. This indicated that the two instruments were reliable. The research 
question were answered using r and R2 while the hypotheses were tested using P- value. The 
findings revealed that there is moderate predictive power of digital literacy on secondary school 
student’s academic achievement in Chemistry and the prediction was statically significant (r = 
0.793: R2 = 0.629: Sig. t = 0.000). Furthermore, the result revealed a high and moderate positive 
predictive strength of chemistry digital literacy scores on male and female students’ achievement 
scores in chemistry and the prediction was statically significant (Male: r = 0.825: R2 = 0.681: Sig. 
t = 0.000 ) (Female: r = 0.753: R2 = 0.567: Sig. t = 0.000). From the findings it was recommended 
among others that secondary school administrators and guidance and councilors should give 
priority to chemistry digital literacy of the students in making decisions regarding teaching
learning activities. From the recommendations conclusion were made.