Using excel to improve the teaching and learning of probability in Colleges of Colleges of Education_an action research of Gbewaa College of Education, Pusiga-Bawku

Abstract

Many students in our Colleges of Education have not been exposed to explore MS Excel in solving mathematical problems. The aim of this study was, therefore, set out to explore the various ways for teaching and learning Probability, using the MS Office Excel software programme. The study has explored how tutors and students can use MS Excel to solve problems in probability. The researcher integrated both qualitative (interviews and observation instruments) and quantitative methodologies (pretest and post test instruments) methodologies to obtain the research data. The sampling procedure was purposively targeted on students who performed abysmally low marks in Probability as depicted from the test results. Simple bar charts, pie charts and percentages were employed for the qualitative data and t-tests (Paired and independent) were used for the hypotheses set to answer the quantitative data. Thirty (30) most poorly performed students were selected for the study; 5 from each of the 6 classes. Simple programs in MS Excel such as random sampling, binomial sampling, one way tables and two way tables were taught. The results showed that the performance of the students in Probability did not depend on whether his/her former school was mixed or single-sex, he/she had former school had ICT training or not, he/she had experience in Excel or not, and one was a male or a female. That is, on the whole, the performance of each student had improved significantly after MS Excel was used. The conclusion was that, integration of any kind when considering the introduction of MS Excel software program in the teaching and learning of Probability did not hinder performance of the students. The study in particular, would help policy makers, especially, the Ghana Education Service (GES) to include Information Communication Technology (ICT) at all levels of education