Effects of the Computer Animated Geogebra Technique in Geometry during Instruction on Secondary School Students' Mathematics Achievement in Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

Student's poor mathematics achievement at KCSE examinations in Kenya's secondary schools have continued despite the government's effort. The reasons for the dismal achievement are attributed to several factors, which include: poor teaching methods, lack of teaching and learning resources, and abstract nature of mathematics. Some mathematics topics among them Geometry has consistently been labelled "too hard” to teach and learn hence its poor performance. The study sought to investigate effects of using Computer Animated Geogebra technique on geometry during instruction on students' achievement in the mathematics topic. It was hoped that the use of ICT would improve the sorry state of mathematics achievement. ICT has been used in teaching and learning of chemistry with remarkable improvement. The theoretical frame work to guide the study was based on constructionist theory of learning where the students constructed new knowledge from real life experiences. The researcher constructed Computer Animations on geometry concepts to augment the teaching of Geometrical concept. Solomon Four, Non-Equivalent Control Group Research Design was used. To ensure that there were no interactions between groups a Simple random sampling was used to assign each group to a specific Sub-County out of sixteen Sub-Counties in Kitui County. A purposive random sampling was used to choose a school for each group that had graduate teachers teaching form four and had a computer laboratory. The study was carried out in a mathematics classroom setting. The two experimental groups were exposed to Computer Animated Geogebra technique as the treatment while the two control groups were taught using the conventional teaching/learning methods. The sample size was 207 students consisting of 95 girls and 112 boys. A Mathematics Achievement Tests (MAT), adopted from KCSE past Examinations on Geometry was used. The instruments were pilot tested to estimate their reliability. The instrument was validated by four experts from the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Management of Egerton University and three mathematics examiners. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was computed to be 0.8826 using K-R 20 formula. A Pre-test was administered to the two groups, one experimental and one control before intervention and then the same MAT was administered to all the four groups after intervention as a Post-test. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 was used to analyse the collected data. The t-test and ANOVA were used to test hypotheses at Coefficient alpha (ά) level of 0.05. The findings are expected to be useful to students, teachers, Policy makers, teacher training colleges and curriculum developers in secondary schools because they may be able to identify a teaching/learning technique which may improve the quality of education in the country.