USING CO-OPERATIVE AND PEER-GROUP TEACHING STRATEGY IN TACKLING POOR PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN EBONYI STATE.

Abstract

This study titled, “using co-operative and peer-group teaching strategy in tackling poor performance of students in mathematics in secondary school students in Ebonyi State” was amid at ascertaining the effect of using co-operative and peer-group teaching strategy over conventional method of teaching mathematics. The study has two research questions and two
hypotheses. It is a quasi-experimental research design that made use of 150 senior secondary school students and 3 Mathematics teachers to generate data from the instrument called “Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT)”. The instrument contains 30 multiply choice questions with option A –D formed from menstruation aspect of senior secondary mathematics. Data for
the study was generated by administering the same MAT to both experimental and the control group. Data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation for research questions and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for hypotheses. Results showed that cooperative and peer-group teaching strategy enhanced achievement of students in Mathematics better than the
conventional teaching method for both male and female students with male students performing better in both methods. There was also a significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught Mathematics using the cooperative and peer-group teaching strategy than those taught using the conventional method. Based on the results the researchers recommended among other things the use of cooperative and peer-group teaching strategy for teaching secondary school students.