Abstract

THE EFFICACY OF 4-STAGE PROFICIENCY APPROACH IN ERADICATING GENDER RELATED MATHEMATICAL PROFICIENCY DIFFERENCES AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS IN LAGOS STATE

Dada, F. H.; Johnson, F. O.& Lawal, R. F.

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Abstract Mathematical performance in relation to gender is a long standing issue with the male gender often times regarded as the mathematically superior specie. Also, teachers? continual adoption of the conventional strategy has been criticized. This study therefore examined the role of a proficiency based instructional approach (Tutorial-Terms-operations-Problem solving Proficiency Approach (TTOPPA)) in improving students? mathematics achievement and specificallyboosting female students? achievement to males? equivalent. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design of the pretest-posttestcontrol group type. The sample consisted of 283 SS II students of which 135 students were females and 148 students were males. The treatment (TTOPPA) lasted for a period of five weeks. Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT)with reliability coefficient of 0.966 was used to obtain relevant data on students? achievement. Research questions were answered using descriptive statistics while raised hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics. Results showed that male students were significantly better than the femalestudents; TTOPPA was more effective than the conventional method in improving students? achievement in mathematics, the approach also eradicated gender differences in achievement that existed in the experimental group prior to the administration of treatment. It was recommended that mathematics teachers should adopt gender unbiased approaches such as TTOPPA in mathematics instructions so as to eliminate gender performance gaps which are inherent in conventional classes. In that way, male and female studentscan be made to achieve equally and females? participation in mathematics and related disciplines can be improved. Key Words: 4-stage proficiency approach, gender performance, achievement, eradication.

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