Effect of Usability of Mathematics Laboratory Facilities on the Achievement of Junior Secondary School Students in Number and Numeration

Abstract

The study focused on the effect of the usability of mathematics laboratory facilities on achievement of students in number and numeration at junior secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to select two schools in Ikorodu Zone, Education District II and 59 students from two intact classes were selected. The quasi-experimental research design was adopted which involved pre-test and post-test non-equivalent control group. The instrument used for the study was the Number and Numeration Achievement Test (NNAT) which consisted 20 objective questions was adopted from Lagos State Unified Basic Education Certificate Examination past questions validated by Lagos State Ministry of Education Examinations Board. The reliability of the instrument was 0.73 with the use of Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The two research questions raised were answered with the aid of means and Bar-charts, while the three null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Co-Variance (ANCOVA). The findings revealed that the use of mathematics laboratory enhanced achievement in Number and Numeration unlike conventional method. It also showed that there is no significant effect of gender on the achievement of students taught number and numeration using mathematics laboratory approach. Lastly, there is no significant interaction effect of Mathematics laboratory method and gender on students’ achievement scores. It was recommended that mathematics laboratory should be established, and laboratory approach of teaching mathematics should be adopted in our schools.

Keywords: Usability, Laboratory Facilities, Achievement, Number, Numeration

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-21-01

Publication date:July 31^st 2021