Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences

Background: Adequate curriculum coverage is expected to support students’ understanding and performance in secondary school physics. This study examined the relationship between physics curriculum content coverage and students’ academic achievement in Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, Nigeria.

Methods: A descriptive survey design was used. The population comprised 8,724 physics students in 47 senior secondary schools. Sixteen schools and 180 students were selected through simple random sampling. Data were collected using the Physics Curriculum Content Coverage Rating instrument and a 40-item Physics Students’ Achievement Test. The reported reliability coefficients were 0.78 and 0.82. Frequencies, means, standard deviations, t-tests, and analysis of variance were used for analysis.

Results: Recalculation from the submitted response frequencies produced an overall curriculum-coverage mean of approximately 2.07 on a three-point scale. Space, time and motion recorded a mean of 2.63, while conservation principles recorded 2.53. The other four curriculum areas had means below 2.50. Students in schools classified as having high curriculum coverage recorded a mean achievement score of 22.17, compared with 17.52 for moderate coverage and 12.16 for low coverage. The submitted analyses indicated differences across coverage levels and school locations.

Conclusion: Greater physics curriculum coverage was associated with higher student achievement in the sampled schools. However, the cross-sectional survey design does not establish causation, and the statistical outputs require complete verification before firm conclusions are drawn.