ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to determine student’s characteristics and attitude towards the study of physics in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State. To achieve the purpose of this study four (4) hypothesis and four (4) research questions were formulated to guide the study. Several literatures were reviewed on the variable and hypothesis of the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Sample of two hundred (200) students were randomly selected for the study. The selection was done through the simple random sampling technique. The instrument used for collecting data was a 20 item questionnaire titled “Student characteristics and attitude toward the study of Physics” (SCATSP). To test the hypotheses population t-test analysis was considered appropriate because of the nature of variables involved. The result of the analysis indicates that student’s characteristics such as gender, self-concept, and student’s interest have significant influence on their attitude towards the study of Physics in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State. It was recommended that Effective teaching methods and strategies should be adopted in teaching physics to enable both male and female students, function maximally in the studying of physics. Programmes that will arouse students’ interest in studying physics should be carried out in schools and They should be physics workshops organized by the government and the school for both physics teachers and students in order to promote the study of physics in Nigerian schools. It was suggested that further research should be carried out on relationship between student’s age and the understanding of Physics concept.