Abstract

EFFECTS OF CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MENSURATIONIN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Biong ?Ahu, D.1 and Ayuba, I.2

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The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of using the constructivist approach on students? performance in mensuration in Kaura Local Government Area, Kaduna State ? Nigeria. A quasi-experimental pretest ? posttest control group research design was adopted. Two hundred (200) out of a total population of a thousand and sixty eight(1068) students formed the sample size. This was taken by simple random sampling from four (4) Senior Secondary Schools, that is fifty (50) for each SSS1 class, which is out of the fourteen (14) post Primary Schools (public and private) in the study area. The researchers administered a Students? Mathematics Performance Test (SMPT) pretest in mensuration to both the experimental and control groups. Thereafter they taught the experimental group using the constructivist learning approach, while the control group was taught using the conventional teaching method. After performing the experiment on the experimental group, a posttest SMAT in mensurationwas again administered to the two groups, whose mean score and mean score difference were computed. On comparing the mean score difference between the pretest and posttest of the experimental and control groups, the results showed that using constructivist approach improved students? performance in mensuration than using the conventional method of teaching. These results answered the two research questions raised in the study. The two null hypotheses formulated were tested using the student t-test at 0.05 level and n-2 degree of freedom. The results showed that there exists a significant difference between the mean performance scores of the experimental group and that of the control group. However, the results indicated non-significant difference between the mean performance scores of the students in public schools and those in private schools when taught mensuration using the constructivist approach. From these findings, it was recommended that the constructivist approach should be integrated in our present day classroom teaching.

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