Using activity approach to overcome Mansoman Senior High School form three students’ difficulties in mensuration

Abstract

This research study was an action research which involved a sample of fiftyfour (54) students of form 3 General Arts ‘A’ class of Mansoman Senior High School in the Amansie West District of Ashanti Region, selected purposely for the study. The study was aimed at improving the performance of students in mensuration tasks involving areas and volumes of cylinders, cones and spheres. Pre-test and post-test were used in data collection. Pre-test and posttest scores obtained by the students were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics. It was observed in the pre-test that the lowest score was 12.50% and the highest was 55.00%; but the mean score was 30.00% which means that majority of the students’ had marks around 30.00%. Considering the post-test, the lowest score was 35.00% whereas the highest score was 95.00%; and the mean score was around 67.69% which suggests that majority of the students did very well. These indicate that the intervention activities based on the activity approach helped the students to improve their performance on tasks related to cone, right circular cylinder and sphere. It is recommended that the activity approach to teaching and learning should be encouraged in all spheres of the mathematics classroom environments.