EFFECTS OF PROBLEM SOLVING INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD ON ATTITUDE AND PERFORMANCE IN ALGEBRA AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN KADUNA STATE NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study basically assessed the effect of problem solving strategy on attitude and academic performance of students in algebraic concept of mathematics as well as the effect of school location on students’ performance were established., A total of two hundred and thirty-eight (238) students out of a population of two thousand four hundred (2400) students were used for the study. The responses from the instrument used in the study formed the basis for data analysis The study cited several literature and empirical studies. The quasi-experimental design was used for this study. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the analyses of the data collected from the sampled students. The reliability of the two instruments AAT and ATQ were established with the use of the test-re- test reliability estimate and the coefficients were found to be 0.87 and 0.89respectively which signified that the instruments were highly reliable. Five objectives and five research questions were set and five null hypotheses were propounded for the study. Basically, independent sample t-test statistic was used to test all the hypotheses since they are all two variables parametric data. It was observed that problem solving strategy had significant positive effect on students’ attitude towards algebra as well as improved the performance of students; it was recommended that Mathematics teachers should be given all needed encouragement and motivation to use the problem-solving method in place of the conventional lecture method for better academic performance. Also, the study recommended that Teachers who had mastery of the subject (algebra) should be encouraged to teaching the rural areas. Finally, the study recommended that for students’ attitude towards the learning of mathematics improves, well qualified teachers should be allowed to teach the subject mathematics.