Factors influencing students’ physical science enrolment decision at the University of Education, Winneba (original) (raw)

2011, African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences

The study investigated the effects of mathematical game and instructional analogy on students' achievement in junior secondary school mathematics. A total of 246 Junior Secondary Two (JS2) Mathematics students were involved in the study. A 3×2 factorial design was adopted in the research. From the findings, it was observed that: a. both game and analogy enhance achievement in mathematics, b. analogy was found to be more effective in facilitating students' achievement in mathematics than game, c. a nonsignificant difference existed between the achievement of male and female mathematics students taught with either game or analogy, and d. there was no significant interaction between the use/non-use of advance organizers and gender on mathematics students' achievement. It was recommended that teachers should be encouraged to adopt instructional analogy more than game in teaching number and numeration and algebraic processes in mathematics. Keywords mathematical games, instructional analogy, mathematics achievement, advance organizers, gender differences in mathematics Effects of mathematical game and instructional analogy as advance organizers on students' achievement in secondary school mathematics Okigbo, D. E. & Agu, N. N. 4 selected schools. Two intact classes were assigned to experimental group A (game group, N=84), another two intact classes experimental group B (analogy group, N=95) and the third group conventional group C (lecture group, N=67) which were coded 01, 02, 03 respectively. The researcher structured the Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) using junior WAEC past question papers (Nze, 2007). Also, the marking scheme for the MAT and three instructional tools (mathematical games, bridging analogy teaching plan, and lesson plan) were prepared. Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT): This is a 20-item achievement test constructed based on the topics chosen for the study. The test consists of 20 objective questions adopted from Nze (2007). The choice and number of items picked in each unit depends on the time spent during the teaching period. The instrument was used as pre-test and after the treatment has been made, the same instrument was reshuffled and used as posttest. Mathematical Game: Two games namely; Percentages, Fractions and Decimals and Algebraic games were used respectively for teaching number and numeration and algebraic processes. For Percentages, Fractions and Decimals game, researcher-made cards were used. The design of each card is similar and of the same colour. There are three different suits (18 cards per suit) of Fractions, Decimals and Percentage. Figure 1 presents the sample of the cards (Appendix A). For Algebraic game (Game 2), the teachers taught the students using table of magic instructions (Appendix B). Instructional Analogy: Bridging analogy teaching plan was used for teaching instructional analogy group. Lesson Plan: The lesson plan was used for teaching the conventional group C and the game group A. To establish the validity of the games and bridging analogy teaching plan used as instructional tools, they were given to three lecturers in the Department of Mathematics of Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, Anambra State. From their observations and corrections one unit (Geometry and mensuration) was removed. These tools were trial tested using four classes from four schools that did not participate in the research. Also, the 30-item MAT was given to two experience secondary school mathematics teachers and the same three lecturers from Nsugbe for validation. At the end, only the items rated three (3) and above were chosen reducing it to 20 items. The reliability of MAT was established using Kuder Richardson formula 21 (kR-21). Forty students that did not take part in the study were tested with it and reliability was found to be 0.89. Experimental Procedure: The procedure used in conducting this study was presented in two stages. Stage One: Training programme for mathematics teachers The games and bridging analogy teaching plan were used for training the teachers in experimental groups A and B. The training lasted for six days involving three contacts each week. The activities for the six (6) days were as follows: Day 1: Introduction of participants and the purpose of the training, discussion on teachers' experiences in the mathematics classroom, and presentation and analysis of WASSCE results and Chief Examiners reports on mathematics.