The Effect of Inquiry-based Learning on Senior High School Students’ Achievement in Plane Geometry: Pre-test-Post-test Randomized Experimental Design

Abstract

Using inquiry-based learning, this study investigates high school students' achievement in plane geometry. It employed the pre-test-post-test randomized experimental design, often known as the control group design. The participants (students) were randomly assigned to one of two classes/groups and were given either an intervention (the treatment group) or no intervention (the control group). One hundred and twenty (120) third-year high school students of similar mathematical aptitude (a control group = 60 students; an experimental group = 60 students) were chosen from a high school in Ghana's central region. Shapiro-Wilk had a p-value greater than.05 (p >.05) for each statistic, indicating that both the pre-test and post-test scores were normally distributed, before and after the test. The findings of the independent samples t-test showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control pre-test scores (t = -.48, p >.05, C. I = [-1.78, 1.08]). The one-way ANOVA after inquiry-based learning showed a significant effect on student scores, F (1, 118) = 363.41, p < .05). Furthermore, independent samples t-test findings for the post-test showed statistically significant differences between the experimental and control post-test scores (t = -22.68, p < .05, C. I = [-24.29, 20.40]). The study's implications are that students can make their own connections with the content they learn. They may also comprehend the themes rather than simply recalling rules and formulas. The study concludes that inquiry-based learning improves senior high school students’ achievement in plane geometry.