FISHING TOOLS INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS IN ORON LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effect of fishing tools instructional approach and students’ academic achievement in Mathematics in Oron Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. To achieve this purpose, two objectives, two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Quasi-experimental pretest, posttest research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted one thousand and eighty-four (1,084) senior secondary I (SS I) Mathematics students in six (6) public co-educational secondary schools in Oron Local Government Area. The sample for the study consisted one hundred (100) senior secondary (SS I) Mathematics students which were drawn from two intact classes in two secondary schools in the study area. A simple random sampling technique was used for the selection. The instrument used for data collection was tagged “Geometry Achievement Test (GAT)” developed by the researcher. To ensure the validity of the instrument, the instrument was validated by two experienced secondary school Mathematics teachers and an expert in test and measurements in the Department of Science Education, Faculty of Education, Akwa Ibom State University for face and content validation. The stability and reliability coefficient of 0.80 of the instrument was determined using Pearson correlation and was considered suitable for the study. Data collected were coded and analyzed using mean, standard deviation and independent t-test statistics and was tested at .05 level of significance. The results of analysis showed that there is no significant difference in mean score of students’ academic achievement in Mathematics when taught the concept of plane shapes using fishing tools as an instructional approach and those taught without (p-cal. = .685 @ p>0.05). Also, the results further showed that there is no significant difference in the mean score of male and female students’ academic achievement in Mathematics when taught the concept of plane shapes using fishing tools as an instructional approach. (p-cal. = .334 @ p >0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended that stakeholders in education and the government need to train and retrain teachers on adopting the fishing tools instructional approach in Mathematics classrooms to enhance students' academic achievement.