Effect of constructivist teaching approaches on junior secondary school students’ performance, retention and attitude in algebra

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of constructivist teaching approaches on junior secondary school students’ performance, retention and attitude in Algebra within Okene Metropolis of Kogi State in Nigeria. The study leveraged on constructivism theory which posits learners construct knowledge rather than just passively take in information. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design which adapts the pre-test, post-test, post post-test on Experimental Groups and Control groups. A sampling size of 600 out of 54,490 was selected using multi-stage sampling technique. Three research questions were raised and tested with three null hypotheses. One of the major results showed that the students taught with the constructivist teaching approaches have significantly higher score than those taught with lecture method. The major implication of the study for teaching and learning of Algebra in particular, and Mathematics in general, is that learner-centred teaching approaches leads to better performance of students. The study concluded that the use of constructivist teaching approaches (Activity-Based, Guided-Discovery and Problem-Solving) have significant positive effects on academic performance, retention and attitude of junior secondary school students towards Mathematics. It was recommended that the teachers of Mathematics should collaborate with publishers to publish Algebraic books written with the principles of constructivists teaching approaches. Teachers, curriculum planners and stakeholders in Education should include samples of lesson note on how to teach Mathematics with constructivist approaches during Curriculum Reviewed, Workshops, Seminars, etc.