Abstract:
This paper reports on a study that investigated the performance of Chemistry students in IUPAC
nomenclature of organic compounds from two school types. The study focused on senior high school
(SHS) students’ p erformance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds. A cross-sectional survey
provided the study with quantitative data. Stratified random sampling procedure was used to select 245
students from four out of 18 schools who offer elective science for 2010/2011 academic year in the
Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. An achievement test of 30 items was used for collection of the quantitative
data. The results from the study showed that the SHS Chemistry students had showed low performance
in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds. The independent-samples t-test analyses of the results
show that there were no statistical significant differences between the scores of students from well -
endowed and less-endowed schools on both naming and writing structural formulae of organic
compounds using the IUPAC nomenclature system. It is therefore recommended that any assistant
provided by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to help students to improve on
their performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds should be independent of the school -
type.
