INFLUENCE OF TEXTBOOK AND PEER-PROVIDED ACTIVITIES ON LEARNING OUTCOMES OF AT-RISK MATHEMATICS STUDENTS IN EKITI STATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS, NIGERIA



INFLUENCE OF TEXTBOOK AND PEER-PROVIDED ACTIVITIES ON LEARNING OUTCOMES OF AT-RISK MATHEMATICS
STUDENTS IN EKITI STATE SECONDARY
SCHOOLS, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT
          This study compared the influences of textbook and peer provided activities on the performances of at-risk Mathematics Students among 120 junior secondary school three students, selected from three Senatorial District of Ekiti State. Based on students’ performance in the General Mathematics Ability Test (GMAT). The study adopted the non-equivalent pre-test, post-test control group design.
          Research findings revealed that:
Ø The influence at peer-provided activities on the performances of at-risk Mathematics Students was influenced significantly better than at-risk students provided with textbook.
Ø The attitudinal effect on at-risk mathematics students’ peer provided activity was significantly better than at-risk students provided with textbook on their performances.
Ø The retention ability of at-risk mathematics students with peer provided activity was significantly better than textbook provided activity.
Resultantly, it was however concluded that learning outcomes of at-risk mathematics students would be significantly improved with the uses of peer provided activity.

Introduction
          Mathematics is a compulsory subject in the Nigeria Secondary School Curriculum. This is important because of the contribution of the subject to a child's education for technological development of any nation; the teaching of Mathematics is made compulsory in our secondary school in Nigeria. From many years back, students have been facing the problem of poor performance in Mathematics. What has also become a main concern is the negative attitude of students towards mathematics. In the National Policy on Education (2004), Mathematics is one of the leading core and compulsory subjects in the Junior and Senior Secondary School Curricula.
          Okereke (2002) observed that despite the place of Mathematics in the development of a nation, students and pupils acclaim the subject to be very difficult and thus dreaded. There is no doubt that students believe that Mathematics is abstract and difficult to understand.
          Bolaji (2005) found that teachers' characteristics and activities have greater effects on students' attitudes towards Mathematics. Seweje and Idiga (2003) also pointed out to the evidence that students working together in peer learning groups develop better collaboration skills than students in other types of classrooms, are more motivated with better attitudes towards a subject and more likely to grow in the use of higher order thinking skills.
          Students spend much of their time in classroom working on mathematical tasks chosen from textbook. In recognition of the central importance of textbook, the framework of the third international Mathematics and science study (TIMSSS) included large-scale cross-national analysis of Mathematics curricula and textbooks as part of its examination of mathematics education and attainment in almost 50 nations (valverde et al, 2002). They claim that textbook are the print resources most consistently used by teachers and their students in the course of their common work. Textbook are a major source of provision of these educational opportunities.
          Jeje (2015) opined that there are many attributes of a textbook that can affect the attitude and achievement of a learner. These are the structure, the organization, the presentation format which includes the colour, the front type, the front size, the illustrations, the content, the examples, the task-range and order. There are attributes that can contribute to like or dislike, interest of disinterest, attraction or repulsion and ultimately increases positive or negative attitude of learners and users.
          Webb and Mastergeorge (2003) defined peer tutoring a people from similar social grouping who are not professional teachers, helping each to learn and learning themselves by teacher. Peer tutoring also known as peer teaching is the system of instruction in which students works in pair to support each others' learning. This format has been extensively studied in general education which was founded to enhance students cognitive and social learning. Calhoon and Fucks (2003) found that peer-assisted learning strategies improved computation Mathematics skill for the secondary school students with disabilities. Also, the peer tutoring improved currency skills for student with moderate mental retardation. The effectiveness of peer tutoring on Mathematics learning for students with learning at-risk still need to be investigated.
          In Physical education, peer teaching structure have been investigated in different aged target groups in general. These studies have shown increased student response and increased percentages of correct student performance (Johnson and Ward, 2001). They discovered that low-skilled students as well as high skilled students benefit from peer tutoring. However, out of all peer tutoring strategies, is one of the most commonly employed in Physical educations setting (Moston and Arhworth, 2002).
 Purpose of the Study
          The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of textbook and peer-provided activities on learning outcomes of At-risk Mathematics students in Ekiti State Secondary Schools.
Research Hypotheses
          From the objectives, the following null hypotheses were generated and tested at 0.05 level of significance,
(i)                There is no significant difference in the performance of at-risk students that were provided with textbook and peer activities
(ii)             There is no significant difference in the attitude to mathematics of at-risk students provided with textbook and peer-provided activities on students' attitude
(iii)           There   is   no   significant   difference   in   the   retention   ability   of   at-risk mathematics student provided with textbook and peer activities.
Research Design
Population, sample and Sampling Techniques
          The main population for this study included secondary school students in Ekiti State. One school each from the three senatorial district were selected. There were 177 public junior secondary in Ekiti State as at the time of the study.
          The sample for the study consisted of 120 junior secondary school three (JSS III) students randomly selected from the three senatorial districts of Ekiti State. General Mathematical Ability Test (GMAT) was conducted for a school each from each of the three senatorial districts to identify the at-risk Mathematics students. It was due to this ability test that the researcher identify the sampling of 120 students who could not score to a basic minimum performance score of 40%. It was from these three schools that the researchers now have 40 students from each school that served as at-risk Mathematics students.
Research Instruments
The following research instruments were used for data collection:
i.                   General Mathematical Ability Test (GMAT), this consisted of 25 item multiple choice questions. The items were used to identify the at-risk Mathematics students from one school in each of the three senatorial districts of Ekiti State,
ii.                 Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) was used by the researcher. The MAT consisted of 25 item multiple choice questions. These items were used both as pre-test and post-test for the purpose of data collection,
Validity and Reliability of the Instrument
          The validity of the adopted attitude questionnaire was ensured by giving it to three experts who are researchers in this area. They were required to rate each item of the instruments. The reliability of the instrument was determined by administering the Mathematics achievement test (MAT) and the Mathematic attitudinal Scale (MAS). The instruments were subjected to a split half method using Spearman brown prophecy as a reliability estimate of 0.82 and 0.78 for both MAT and MAS respectively.
Data Analysis
          Data collected were analyzed using t-test, ANCOVA and Scheffe post-hoc pair wise comparisons test were carried out to test hypothesis one,  two and three respectively and all analyses were carried out at 5% probability level of significance i.e. P = 0.05.
Results and Discussions
Ho1:   There is no significant difference in the performance of at-risk students that were provided with textbook and peer activities.
Table 1: T-test of at-risk students that were provided with textbook and peer activities.
Variables

N

X

SD

df   t-cal

t-tab

Textbook

40

8.20

2.94













78   7.45

1.96

Peer

40

13.95

3.89




P<0.05
          The t-calculated (7.45) was greater than t-table (1.96) at 0.05 level of significance. Thus the hypothesis is rejected. This means that there is significant difference in the performance of at-risk students provided with textbook and peer activities. The students under peer activities performed better than their counterparts under textbooks activities.
Ho2: There is no significant difference in the attitude to Mathematics of at-risk students provided with textbook and peer activities.
Table 2: ANCOVA of at-risk students' attitude provided with textbook and peer activities.
Sources

Type III Sum of Square

df


     Mean
    square

F

Sig(P)

Partial Eta
Square

Corrected Model Covariate
Attitude
Error
Total
Corrected Total

221.438 172.028 111.438 334.962 3026.000 1336.400

 2
1
1
38
40
39

221.438      
172.028
111.438
8.815 


8.163 19.516 5.163

0.003 0.000 0.003

0.454
0.339
 0.454

R2 = 0.328 (Adjusted R2 = 0.318)
          From  table  2,   there  was   significant difference  in  the  attitude  of at-risk
students provided with textbooks and peer activities as F(l, 38) = 5.163, P<0.05 and σ = 0.454. This value is also greater than F-table (1, 38) = 3.00 at 0.05 level of significance. Hence, the hypothesis is rejected.
Ho3: There   is   no   significant   difference in   the   retention   ability   of   at-risk mathematics students provided with textbook and peer activities.

Table 3:   ANCOVA of at-risk student retention ability under textbook and peer activities.
Sources

Type III

df

Mean

F

Sig(P)

Partial Eta



Sum of



Square





Square



Square











Corrected Model

23.025

2

7.675

5.882

0.000

0.168

Covariate

9.027

1

9.027

7.003

0.000

0.366

Attitude

22.001

1

22.001

4.527

0.000

0.460

Error

313.375

38

8.705







Total

3026.000

40









Corrected Total

336.400

39









          From table 3, there was significant difference in the retention ability of at risk mathematics students provided with textbook and peer activities as F(l, 38) = 4.537, P<0.05 and σ2 = 0.460. This value is also greater than F-table (1, 38) = 3.00 at 0.05 level of significance. Hence, the hypothesis is rejected.
          The post-hoc test in the table 4 below indicated the level of influence between textbooks and peers activities on at-risk students attitude and retention ability to Mathematics.

Table 4: Scheffe Post-hoc for Students' attitude and retention ability under the groups.
Groups

Attitude

Retention Ability

Textbooks

8.20

56.25

Peer- Activities

13.95

64.80

          The mean difference of at-risk students in both groups is in favour of students provided with peer activities as the mean values were greater than their counterparts under textbooks.
Discussion
          The findings of this study compared the influence of textbook and peer-provided activities on performance of at-risk mathematics students. The background of students was equal across the two groups.
          The result presented in table I shows that the T-test of at-risk students that were provided with textbook and peer activities shows there is significant different in the performance of at risk students as t-calculated (7.45) was greater than t-table (1.96). Table II shows that the ANCOVA of at-risk students’ attitude provided with textbook and peer-activities shows that there was significant difference in the attitude of at-risk students. Here the hypothesis was rejected. Table III shows that the ANCOVA of at-risk students retention ability under textbook and peer activities. Also, there was a significant difference in the retention ability the hypothesis was also rejected. The post-hoc test in the table IV shows the level of influence between textbook and peers activities on at-risk students’ attitude and retention ability to mathematics. Hence, the mean difference of at-risk students in both groups is in favour of students provided with peer activities as the mean values was greater than their counterparts under textbooks.
Conclusion
          The findings concluded that the at-risk students’ performance provided with peer activity performed significantly higher under attitude and retention ability.
Recommendation
          It was recommended that mathematics teachers should be encouraged by government and schools to use peer provided activities in their teaching of mathematics in the classroom. As this had been found to improve the learning outcomes of students.

REFERENCES
Bolaji, C. (2GO5). "The need for problem solving in our school Mathematics" paper presented at the national conference on recent development in Mathematical sciences, organized by Mathematics association of Nigeria held at Osiele Abeokuta 2nd - 6th September. P2.
Calhoon, M.B and Fucks (2003). The effects of peer-assisted learning strategies and curriculum based measurement on the Mathematics performance of Secondary students with disabilities. Remedial and Special Education 24(4), 235-245.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004): National Policy on education, federal Ministry of Science and technology, Abuja.
Jeje, O. S. (2015). Influence of Teacher, Text-book and Peer-provided Activities on learning outcomes of at-risk Mathematics students. Unpublished M.A. (Ed), Thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
Johnson,   M, and Ward P. (2001). Effects of Class peer tutoring on correct performance of striking skills in 3rd grade physical education. Journal of teaching in Physical education. 20, 247 - 263.
Moston,  M. and Arhworth, S. (2002). Teaching Physical education (5th ed.) San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings.
Okereke, S. A. (2002). Impact of Familiar Quantities on pupils Achievement in Mathematics, STAN proceedings of the Annual Conference and Inaugural Conference of CASTME Africa, 358 - 363,
Seweje, R.O and Idiga, D. (2003). An investigation into the readability of the Integrated Science textbooks. Journal of the Curriculum Studies Department, University of Ado Ekiti, Nigeria 2(10), 205 - 210.
Verlverde   et al, (2002). According to the book-using Timss to investigate the translation of policy into practice through the world of textbook. Dordrecht: Kluwer academic publishers
Webb, N. M and Master George A. M. (2003). The developments of Students helping and learning in peer directed small group. Cognition and instruction 2(4), 361 -428.


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