Effect of Scaffolding Instructional Strategy on Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Circle-Geometry in Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the Effect of Scaffolding Instructional Strategy on Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Circle-Geometry in Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The population included 1,027 students’ (612 male and 415 female), with the sample size of 47 students’ (24 male and 23 female) selected randomly. Quasi-experimental design, specifically a pre-test, post-test, non-equivalence control group design, was employed. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses. The Circle Geometry Achievement Test (CGAT) served as the data collection instrument, which was validated by three experts and found reliable with a reliability index of 0.82 using Kuder-Richardson formula 21 (K-R21). The instrument was validated by three experts and found reliable with a reliability index 0.82 using K-R21. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was employed to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Results indicated that students’ taught circle-geometry using the scaffolding instructional strategy achieved better than those taught using conventional method. Additionally, there was no significant difference in achievement scores between male and female students exposed to the scaffolding instructional strategy. The findings suggest that scaffolding is an effective instructional strategy for enhancing students’ understanding of circle-geometry. Consequently, it was recommended that mathematics teachers should adopt activity-based methods like scaffolding to improve student achievement in circle-geometry.