Effect Of Reduction Problem Solving Technique On Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement In Mathematics In Enugu Education Zone, Enugu State Nigeria
Nneji Samuel Onyinyechi Ph.D
Department of Mathematics and Computer Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu.
Udabah Cordelia Udemgbo Ph.D
General Studies Division, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu.
Keywords: Reduction Problem Solving Technique, Academic Achievement, Secondary School Students
Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the effect of reduction problem solving technique on secondary school students’ academic achievement in Mathematics in Enugu education zone of Enugu State. It was a quasi-experimental study, pretest-posttest, non-equivalent groups were used. A total of 592 JSSII students were sampled from six secondary schools in Enugu Education zone of Enugu state. The schools were made up of three rural and three urban schools drawn by purposive sampling while twelve intact classes were randomly sampled and assigned experimental and control groups. Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by the experts. A reliability coefficient of .77 was obtained for MAT using Kuder-Richardson’s formula 20 (KR-20). Two research Questions and three hypotheses guided the study. MAT was administered to the subjects at the beginning of the study to collect the pretest achievement scores. After the treatment period of six weeks, MAT was administered to the subjects for posttest achievement scores. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested at0 .05 level of significance using Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA). Major findings of the study revealed that students taught mathematics with reduction problem solving technique achieved higher than those taught with lecture method. Also, urban students taught mathematics with reduction problem solving technique out-performed their counterparts in the rural schools. Hence, there was significant interactional effect between teaching methods and school location on students’ academic achievement in mathematics. It was therefore recommended that reduction problem solving technique should be adopted for teaching secondary school mathematics and mathematics teachers in rural schools should devise means of increasing their students’ reduction problem solving skills.