Exploring Inductive Teaching: Its Effectiveness in Teaching Circle Theorems to High School Students

Abstract

The study examines the effectives of inductive teaching method on High School students’ achievement in circle theorems and whether students’ gender influence their performance in circle theorems. A non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design was employed. One hundred and sixty-two students from two schools in Keta Municipality participated in the study. The control group consists of 80 respondents and the experimental group consists of 82 respondents. The eighty-two students in the experimental group were taught topics in circle theorems using inductive teaching method while the eighty students in the control group were taught the same topics using conventional approach. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. At the beginning of the experiment a pre-test was administered to the students in the two groups while at the end of the experiment session that last for two weeks, a test was administered to the students as post-test using achievement test of 20 items. A reliability coefficient of .805 was achieved for multiple choice questions and an estimate of .732 was achieved for the essay using Cronbach’s alpha. Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation, ANCOVA and independent sample t-test. Findings showed that students who were taught circle theorems using inductive teaching method performed better than students who were taught circle theorems conventionally. It further revealed that there was no significant difference in the performance of male and female students taught circle theorems using inductive method of teaching. The implication is that students’ gender has no statistically significant effect on their academic performance in circle theorems. The study recommended that mathematics teachers should vary their classroom teaching practices, including inductive teaching method in mathematics.