Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of constructivist teaching
approaches on junior secondary school students’ performance, retention and attitude in
Algebra within Okene Metropolis of Kogi State in Nigeria. The study leveraged on
constructivism theory which posits learners construct knowledge rather than just
passively take in information. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design which
adapts the pre-test, post-test, post post-test on Experimental Groups and Control groups.
A sampling size of 600 out of 54,490 was selected using multi-stage sampling
technique. Three research questions were raised and tested with three null hypotheses.
One of the major results showed that the students taught with the constructivist teaching
approaches have significantly higher score than those taught with lecture method. The
major implication of the study for teaching and learning of Algebra in particular, and
Mathematics in general, is that learner-centred teaching approaches leads to better
performance of students. The study concluded that the use of constructivist teaching
approaches (Activity-Based, Guided-Discovery and Problem-Solving) have significant
positive effects on academic performance, retention and attitude of junior secondary
school students towards Mathematics. It was recommended that the teachers of
Mathematics should collaborate with publishers to publish Algebraic books written with
the principles of constructivists teaching approaches. Teachers, curriculum planners and
stakeholders in Education should include samples of lesson note on how to teach
Mathematics with constructivist approaches during Curriculum Reviewed, Workshops,
Seminars, etc.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Mathematics Education,
Faculty of Sciences, Submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment
of the Requirements for the award of Degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Mathematics Education)
In the University of Education, Winneba
AUGUST, 2022