Abstract:
This study sought to determine effects of GeoGebra on Senior High School
students‘ mathematical understanding of rigid motion. The study was conducted using
students and mathematics teachers of Senior High School ‗A‘ in Ho in the Volta
Region of Ghana. The sample size was made up of 100 students and four mathematics
teachers. The control group was made up of 50 students and the experimental group
comprised 50 students. The study was conducted using non-equivalent control group
with pre-test and post-test design, a quasi-experimental approach using both
qualitative and quantitative method. Instruments used for gathering data on the study
were rigid motion achievement tests (pre-test & post-test), observations and
questionnaires. Findings made with regards to difficulties SHS students have in
performing rigid motion were: description of the line of reflection of reflected figures
in a given diagram, interpretation of equations of lines of reflection, substitution of
object points into formulae to arrive at image points, interpretation of translation
vectors, and interpretation of clockwise and anticlockwise rotation. Other findings
from the study further showed that these difficulties of students were as a result of
factors such as the use of traditional approach to teach students rigid motion at the
Junior High School level where formulae were given for the students to use without
any practical knowledge of the concept, little or no integration of ICT in the teaching
of rigid motion in order to show learners what to do through worked-out and modelled
examples, in addition to practice for successful learning. Again, the results showed
that there was a significant difference between the mean performances of the
experimental group (M = 12.10, SD = 5.987) and control group (M = 5.98, SD
=4.298), t (98) =5.872, p =.000 in the post-test. The average mean performances of
each of the two groups showed that the experimental group performed better than the
Description:
A Thesis in the Department of MATHEMATICS EDUCATION, Faculty of
SCIENCE EDUCATION. Submitted to the School of Research and Graduate Studies
University of Education, Winneba, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
award of the Degree of MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY IN MATHEMATICS
EDUCATION of the UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA.
2016
