GENDER DISPARITIES AND SCORING LEVELS: EFFECTS OF MATHEMATICS LABORATORY ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN GEOMETRY IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Geometry is an important topic of Mathematics that many students often fear and perform poorly in internal and external examinations. This is traceable to non-pragmatic method of teaching the topic employed by Mathematics teachers. There is a need for a pragmatic students-centered method of learning such as the Mathematics laboratory to improve students’ understanding of the topic. Also, there is a dearth of studies on students' performance in geometry using Mathematics laboratory.. A quasi-experimental design was employed for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select four senior secondary schools in Abuja. The sample consisted of 195 students. The instruments used for data collection was plane geometry performance test (PGPT) which was validated by two experienced Mathematics Education lecturers and three experienced senior secondary school Mathematics teachers. The PGPT had a reliability co-efficient of 0.79, using Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation. Mean, standard deviation and Analysis of Covariance were used to analyze the data at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study were that: there was a significant difference in the performance of students taught geometry using Mathematics laboratory and their counterparts taught using the conventional method in favor of those taught using Mathematics laboratory, there was no significant difference in the performance of students taught geometry using Mathematics laboratory on the basis of gender, there was a significant difference in the performance of students taught  geometry Mathematics laboratory on the basis of scoring levels in favor of the low scoring students, This study recommended that Mathematics teachers should use Mathematics laboratory in teaching geometry.