EFFECT OF ACTIVITY-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY ON PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS IN AWKA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT EDUCATION AUTHORITY

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of activity-based instructional strategy on primary school pupils’ achievement in Mathematics in Awka South Local Government Education Authority. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. A quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test non-randomised control group research design was adopted for the study. The population of this study comprised all the basic five pupils in Awka South Local Government Education Authority, Anambra State. The sample for the study comprised 91 basic five pupils drawn using a multistage sampling procedure. An instrument titled the Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) was used for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts: two from the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education and one from the Department of Educational Foundations, all within the Faculty of Education at Nnamdi Azikiwe University. The content validation was established using the table of specifications. The reliability of the MAT was determined using the Kuder-Richardson formula 20 (KR-20), which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.81. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The study's findings revealed, among other things, that pupils taught Mathematics using an activity-based instructional strategy achieved greater results than those taught using the expository teaching method in primary schools within the Awka South Local Government Education Authority. It was also found that there is a significant difference between the mean achievement scores of male and female pupils taught Mathematics using an activity-based instructional strategy in primary schools in Awka South Local Government Education Authority. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that Mathematics teachers should integrate activity-based instructional strategy in teaching.