ACHIEVEMENT IN ALGEBRA DUE TO INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY USED ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ONITSHA EDUCATION ZONE

Abstract

The study examined the achievement in algebra due to instructional strategy used on senior secondary school students in Onitsha Education Zone. One research question was posed and two hypotheses formulated to guide the study. Quasi-experimental (Non-equivalent control group design) was used for the study. The sample used for the study was 320 (male and female) senior secondary two students purposively selected from eight schools in the zone (one intact class each). The instrument used for the study was Algebraic Expression Achievement Test (ALAT). The
ALAT was used as the pretest, posttest . Two sets of lesson plans and a marking guide were also developed for the study. The instruments, lesson plans and marking guide were all validated by three experts in mathematics education and measurement and evaluation. ALAT yielded reliability coefficient of 0.76 obtained using Kuder-Richardson 20 Formula. ALAT was administered to the subjects at the beginning of the study as pretest. The experimental and
control groups were taught using algebraic board game and expository method respectively, followed by posttest. Research assistants were trained for the experiment and extraneous variables were controlled. Mean and Standard deviation were used to answer the research question, while the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was adopted in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The findings of the study showed that students taught algebra using the algebraic board game achieved significantly higher than those taught algebra using the expository method. Moreso, there was no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught algebra using the algebraic board game. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that algebraic board game should be used by mathematics teachers in teaching algebra.