The main purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which 11 selected mathematics tutors facilitate the teaching and learning of geometry at the van Hiele Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 at the college of education level in Ghana. The van Hiele theory of geometric thinking was used to explore the type of teaching strategies employed by the mathematics tutors. The theory served as a guideline from which classroom observation protocol was developed. Results indicated that the tutors exhibit a good conceptual understanding in facilitating the teaching and learning of geometry that is consistent with van Hiele Levels 1 and 2. However, much of the geometry teaching and learning strategies of the mathematics tutors were not structured in a way that support the development of geometric thinking as described in van Hiele Levels 3 and 4. Implications for the involvement of college mathematics tutors in utilizing the van Hiele framework were discussed.
The purpose of this Ex Post facto study was to investigate the difference in mathematics achievement between male and female learners offering Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) by distance at the Institute for Distance and e-Learning (IDeL), University of Education, Winneba (UEW). Three consecutive year cohort groups (i.e. 2015, 2016 and 2017) of DBE distance learners were purposively selected from all the forty distance education centers of IDeL-UEW. There were 6,468, 3,483 and 3,276 learners in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 year groups respectively. This gave a sample size of 13,227 distance learners for the study. The End-of-semester mathematics examinations grades of the learners in Math I and Math II were retrieved from the UEW-IDeL registry and analysed comparatively using Chi-Square tests. Generally, the results show a below average performance in mathematics for both genders. However, there were statistically significant differences in the achievement of Mathematics between male and female distance learners in each of the three years with the males attaining higher grades than their female counterparts. It is recommended that teacher education institutions engaged in distance programmes should pay special attention to the gender gap in mathematics achievement and adopt strategies to motivate them to pursue the subject.
This study investigated the effect of PowerPoint (PPT) instruction on achievement in two categories of SHSs in Ghana; less endowed and endowed schools, using a pre-test post-test quasi-experimental design. The sample consisted of 80 randomly selected students from two purposively selected government-assisted SHSs. The instruments used for data collection were two similar adopted Pre- and Post-Geometry Achievement Tests (GAT). During treatment, PPT presentations were used to teach both groups, some selected topics in geometry. Analysis of pre-GAT scores of both groups revealed that the participants in the endowed group significantly outperformed their counterparts in the less endowed group by a mean difference of 9.20. The results from the independent samples t-test conducted also showed that the endowed group significantly outperformed the less endowed group in the post-GAT. However, the results showed that the mean difference recorded between the two groups in the pre-GAT was significantly reduced to 6.58 in the post-GAT. Finally, the findings revealed no influence of gender in the achievement of both groups when PPT presentation was used in the instructional delivery. In conclusion, the use of PPT presentations in mathematics was found to increase SHS students’ achievement in mathematics and also found to be a good instructional approach that can be employed to narrow the gap in achievement levels between endowed and less endowed SHSs. The implications for practice and research are discussed.
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