INNOVATIONS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN NIGERIA, Ebele C. Okigbo, Nneka R. Nnorom, Ernest O. Onwukwe [best reads .TXT] 📗

order to reduce hawthorne effect. The students in the experimental group were taught with HKC (ie 3-D shapes such as cube, cuboid, cone, cylinder, prisms, pyramids, with cardboard sheet or other local content materials) and which lasted for twenty minutes in each case. Thereafter, teachers asked the students to construct shapes in order to calculate, measure and write out the number of edges, vertices, faces radius, circumference, depth and height of the shape as it applies to each. Then, based on the knowledge acquired from the construction, teachers guided the students to derive the formula for calculating the surface area, total surface area and volume of the shapes. Also, teachers guided the students to use the formula in solving practical problems.

 

The control group was taught geometry with CTM. The subject matter was presented to the students using charts as instructional materials to explain the concept of three dimensional shapes. The students listened and copied note on the board. At the end of the treatment which lasted for four weeks, post test was administered to both groups. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while two-way Analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

 

Results

Research Question 1: What are the mean achievement scores of students exposed to HKC of three-dimensional shapes and those exposed to CTM in geometry?

 

Table1: Mean and standard deviation of achievement scores of students exposed to HKC and CTM in geometry.

 

Pre-test Post-test Mean()  SD  SD

Source of                N  Gain                                                                   Pretest  Posttest

Variation

 

HKC                                135                14.53  66.56  52.03  8.01  11.71  

 

CTM                  139                14.89  44.42  29.53  7.94  17.38  

 

The result presented in Table 1 reveals that the students exposed to HKChad a pretest mean achievement score of 14.53 with a standard deviation of 8.01 and a post test mean achievement score of 66.56 with a standard deviation of 11.71. The mean gain achievement score of the students exposed to HKC was 52.03.The students exposed to CTM had a pretest mean achievement score of 14.89with a standard deviation of 7.94 and a post test mean achievement score of 44.42 with a standard deviation of 17.38.The mean gain achievement score of the students exposed to CTM was 29.53.

 

Research Question 2: What are the mean achievement scores of male and female students exposed to HKC of three - dimensional shapes in geometry and those exposed to CTM in geometry?

 

Table 2: Mean and standard deviation achievement scores of male and female students exposed to HKC and CTM in geometry.

Statistics

Source of                  Gender                   N                                  Type of Test  SD

variation

 

HKC                                Male  59                Post test                67.004.96

Pre test                                15.013.00

                                                                                                Gain                                  51.99

CTM                                                                Male  64                Post test                44.96 8.10

Pre test                                14.29  3.77

Gain  30.67

                                 Total  123

 HKC                                Female  76                Post test                66.126.75

                                                                                                Pre test                                14.055.01

                                                                                                Gain                                52.07

CTM                                                 Female  75                Post test                43.889.28  

Pre test                                14.604.17

                                                                                Gain                                29.28

Total  151

 

The result presented in Table 2 reveals that the male students exposed to HKC had a pretest mean score of 15.01 with a standard deviation of 3.00 and a posttest mean 67.00 with a standard deviation of 4.96. The mean gain achievement score of male students exposed to HKC was 51.99.The female students exposed to HKC had a pretest mean score of 14.05 with a standard deviation of 5.01 and a posttest mean 66.12 with a standard deviation of 6.75.The mean gain achievement score of  female students exposed to HKC was 52.07.

 

Table 2 reveals also that male students exposed to CTM had a pretest mean score of 14.29 with a standard deviation of 3.77 and a posttest mean score of 44.96 with a standard deviation of 8.10. The mean gain achievement score of male students exposed to CTM was 30.67.The female students exposed to HKC had a pretest mean score of 14.60 with a standard deviation of 4.17 and a posttest mean score of 43.88 with a standard deviation of 9.28.The mean gain achievement score of  female students exposed to HKC was 29.28.

Testing of the Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students who were taught geometry using HKC of three-dimensional shapes and those taught using CTM.

 

Table 3: Summary of Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) of achievement scores of students exposed to HKC and CTM in geometry.

 

 

Source

Type III Sum of Squares

Df

Mean Square

F

Sig.

Partial Eta Squared

Corrected Model

28868.563a

4

1873.035

14.500

.000

.629

Intercept

51977.480

1

51977.480

402.379

.000

.746

Pretest

3.705

1

3.705

.029

.866

.000

Method

22247.695

1

22247.695

172.229

.000

.557

Gender

4.752

1

4.752

.037

.848

.000

Method * gender

7.334

1

7.334

.057

.812

.000

Error

17697.022

268

129.175

 

 

 

Total

476444.000

274

 

 

 

 

Corrected Total

47665.584

273

 

 

 

 

a. R Squared = .629 (Adjusted R Squared = .585)

 

The result in Table 3 shows that there is a significant effect of HKC on students’ achievement in geometry F(1, 273) =172.229, P = 0.0005, partial η2= .557.The null hypothesis was therefore rejected. Hence, there is a significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students who were taught geometry using HKC of three-dimensional shapes and those taught using CTM.

Hypothesis 2: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students who were taught geometry.

The result for this hypothesis is presented in Table 3.The result reveals that there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students who were taught geometry f (1, 273) =0.037, p = 0.848, (partial  eta = .0005).The null hypothesis was therefore not rejected. This indicates that gender does not influence the mean achievement scores of students in  geometry.

Hypothesis 3: There is no significant interaction effect of teaching  method  and  gender  on mean achievement  scores of students in geometry.  

 

The result for this hypothesis is as well presented in Table 3.The result shows that there is no significant interaction effect of teaching strategy and gender on students’ mean achievement scores in geometry F (1, 273) = 0.057, P = 0.812, partial η2= .0005.The null hypothesis was therefore not rejected. This means that the interaction effect of method and gender on mean achievement  scores of students in geometry is not significant.

 

Discussion

The result revealed that the mean gain achievement score of the students taught geometry using HKC was higher than those taught with CTM as shown in Table 1. This meant that from the pre-test to the post-test, students taught geometry using HKC improved more than the students taught with CTM. In the pre-test, the standard deviation score of both groups of students were almost the same. However, in the post-test, the standard deviation score of the students taught with CTM was bigger than that of the students taught geometry using HKC. This is an indication that the marks obtained by the students taught geometry using HKC were closer together than those of the students taught with CTM. In other words, the gap between high and average scorers who were taught geometry was bigger in the CTM group as compared to the HKC group. Results in Table 3 further confirms that there is significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students who were taught geometry using HKC and those taught using CTM. Therefore, the students’ achievement in geometry is improved when taught using HKC, than when taught using CTM. It shows that teaching method has positive effect on achievement in geometry. This finding suggests that the use of HKC is more efficacious than the CTM. The likely factors responsible for this finding are students’ ability to visualize and manipulate the objects, motivation and interest generated by the HKC method. This finding is in consonant with the finding of Akaazua, Bolaji, Kajuru, Ma, Musa and Bala, (2017) who reported thatConcrete Manipulative Approach (CMA) improved the performance of students taught geometry concepts in Mathematics.

The analysis of data specifically male and female achievement scores presented in Table 2 showed that the male students who were exposed to HKC had higher mean gain achievement score than female students who were exposed to HKC.  Likewise, the male students who were exposed to CTM had higher mean gain achievement score than female students who were exposed to CTM. The observed differences in mean achievement scores of male and female students were furthermore subjected to two-way ANCOVA as presented in Table 3. The result showed that there was no main effect of gender on the mean achievement scores of students who were taught geometry. That is, gender had no significant influence on students’ achievement scores.  What this means is that gender does not influence the mean achievement scores of students who were taught geometry. This finding suggests that both high and low achieving male and female students who were exposed to HKC improved in achievement. The possible reason is that in course of revision, the low achieving male and female students who were exposed to HKC may have used the HKC repeatedly which enhanced their achievement. This finding is in agreement with the finding of Osuafor and Njoku (2016) who reported that there was no significant  influence of gender  on  the mean achievement scores  of  students.

The result of hypothesis three shows that there is no significant interaction effect of teaching  strategy  and  gender  on students’ mean achievement scores in geometry. This finding agrees with the finding of Osuafor and Njoku (2016) who reported that the interaction effect of teaching methods and gender on students’ achievement scores in Mathematics was not significant.

 

Conclusion

In this study, it was concluded that HKC was effective for teaching three dimensional shapes in geometry in mathematics for senior secondary school students. It enhanced students’ achievement than CTM. Gender did not influence achievement of students in geometry. The interaction effect of method and gender on students’ achievement scores in geometry was not significant and did not influence achievement of students in geometry.

Recommendations

From the findings of this study, the following recommendation is made: The use of  HKC should be encouraged by mathematics teachers in teaching three dimensional shapes in geometry because it enhances the achievement of the students.

 

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