International Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education (Special Edition, Vol. 3) 2018 30 PERCEIVED DIFFICULT CONCEPTS IN PHYSICS AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN IFE CENTRAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OSUN STATE Bello, T. O (Ph.D); Opaleye, O. S. & Olatunde, A. N. Institute of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife bledora@yahoo.co.uk; gloriouspillar4life@yahoo.com Abstract The study identified the difficult concepts in senior secondary school Physics curriculum as perceived by the students in Ife Central Local Government Area of Osun State. It also investigated the underlying factors responsible for students having difficulties in comprehending some of the Physics concepts and finally examined whether a significant difference exist between male and female students perception of difficult concepts in Physics curriculum. The study employed descriptive survey research design. The population consisted of senior secondary school science students in Ife Central Local Government Area (LGA). The study sample was made up of 300 students, selected using multistage sampling technique. An instrument titled “Student’s Perception of Difficult Concepts in Secondary School Physics Curriculum” (SPDCS 2 PC) was developed and validated before used for data collection. Two research questions were raised and answered and one hypothesis formulated and tested in the study. Data collected were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test statistics. The results showed that Simple Harmonic Motion; Projectile; Waves; and Gas laws among others concepts of Physics were mostly considered difficult with RSI values of 0.53, 0.51, 0.49 and 0.49 respectively. The results also showed that “Too many formulae/laws/content to memorize; Worked examples simpler than class exercise; Too many calculation and Too little practical work” with RSI values of 0.76; 0.70; 0.69 and 0.69 respectively were the prominent factors identified to be responsible for students’ learning difficulties of Physics concepts. It further revealed there was no significance difference in male and female students’ perception of the difficult concepts in Physics curriculum (t = 0.69; p>0.05). The study concluded that students’ perception of Physics as difficult subject could be a reason for students’ decline of interest in Physics over the course of their secondary schooling. Keywords: Perception, Difficult concepts, Physics. Introduction The relevance of science to national goals, aspirations and economy dictates to a large extent, the huge commitment and support which nations make and give to science and technology advancement. This may be the reason why Achor (2006) and Ada (2008) opined that as a result of the speed at which the world is changing technologically, the need and usefulness of teaching and learning of science therefore cannot be over looked. The classification of nations into developed, developing and underdeveloped is based on their technological advancement (Agogo, 2009; Maduawesi, Aboho and Okwuedei, 2010). In Nigeria, the three major science subjects – Biology, Chemistry and Physics, are taught at the senior secondary school level. This has equipped the young graduates to be prepared for science and science-based courses at the tertiary level. According to the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2014), Physics education should be emphasized at the secondary school in terms of its teaching and learning. This is because Physics