Dice and spinner games on students’ Academic performance in Probability in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government Area , Rivers state.

Abstract

This study comparatively analyzes the effects of the use of dice game and spinner game on students’ academic performance in probability in junior secondary schools in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A quasi-experimental two-group pretest–posttest design was used for the research. The population of the study comprises 19,478 Junior Secondary School students from twenty-four (24) public Junior Secondary Schools in the Study Area. The sample of the study consists of 144 students from the two schools used for the study. Two intact classes were used for the study. Probability Performance Test was used for data collection. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance ANCOVA at 0.05 level of significance. Reliability Coefficient of 0.88 was obtained. Findings from the study showed that, there is no significant difference between performance of students taught probability using dice game and those taught using spinner game, there is a significant difference between the performance of male and female students taught probability using dice game, and there is no significant difference between the performance of male and female students taught probability using spinner game. Based on the findings, the study recommends, among others, that secondary school mathematics teachers should be encouraged to adopt mathematical game approach as part of their teaching strategies for improved performance in Mathematics.