Effect of Representation Strategies on Secondary School Students’ Mathematics Achievement: A Case Unguja Island, Zanzibar

Abstract

This study sought to establish the effect of representations strategies on Secondary School students’ Mathematics Achievement in Unguja Island, Zanzibar. Four out of sixteen public secondary schools located in the urban district of Unguja Island were randomly selected. Two of these schools were assigned as the experimental group while the other two were the control group. Participants were students from level three who were sampled based on the type of group to which the school is assigned. Achievement tests (pre-test and post-test) based on mathematics topics of relation and function were used as an instrument for data collection. Data was analyzed quantitatively in terms of descriptive statistics and t-tests. The study established no initial difference in performance between the control and the experimental groups. After the intervention, the experimental group which used multiple representation strategies outperformed the control group. Therefore, the study recommends that teachers should implement multiple representation strategies during the mathematics teaching. Additionally, teachers should be provided with in-service training on proper utilization of varieties of representation strategies in teaching and learning of mathematics for better results to be realized.