The impact of inquiry-based approach on achievement in mathematics among pre-school children in Ngong division, Kajiado County, Kenya.
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of inquiry-based
approach on preschool children’s achievement in mathematics in Ngong
Division, Kajiado County, Kenya. In essence, the study sought to establish
whether inquiry-based approach affect pre-school children’s acquisition of
mathematics process skills, the effect of manipulative materials on mastery of
number value; the effect of inquiry-based approach on preschoolers’ ability to
count on; and the impact of learning environment on classification of objects.
Literature reviewed established that inquiry-based approach enables children
to actively participate in the learning process which enhances retention of
content. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design in seeking to
establish the differences in performance between control and experimental
groups, where 13 pre-school teachers and 269 pre-school children from 13
pre-schools were involved. The population was systematically and randomly
sampled. Data collecting instruments included questionnaires and interview
schedule for pre-school teachers, tests for pre-schoolers and observation check
list to determine the availability of facilities and materials for the purpose of
teaching and learning Mathematics and the acquisition of mathematics process
skills. The collected data was categorized, coded and analyzed using
frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation and t-tests. A two sample
t-test was done to establish whether there was any statistical significant
difference in children’s achievement in mathematics between experimental
and control groups. The findings from the post- test showed that the
experimental group had a mean of 98.0000 (n=6) and a standard deviation of
1.69823, while the control group had a mean of 83.6667 (n=6) and a standard
deviation of 4.44687. The difference between the means of the two groups
was statistically significant because the t calculated at 5 degrees of freedom
both at 95% confidence interval of the difference = 6.912 and since p=.001
(less than 0.05 at 95% level of confidence). The findings revealed that
mathematics activities involving inquiry-based approach enhance children’s
achievement in mathematics. The findings also revealed that most pre-school
centers lacked vital resources such as sand corner, mathematics corner and
that both learning and play resources were inadequate which basically
contributes to poor performance in the subject. From the study, it was
recommended that the government through the Ministry of Education should
organize for workshops and refresher courses for pre-school teachers and
ECDE officers. This will enhance exchange of ideas on relevant methods of
teaching mathematics. Based on the advantages of Inquiry-based approach, it
may be confidently applied in the teaching of mathematics and other related
activity areas in pre-school, and science subjects in successive levels of
education. Finally, a similar study need to be extended to a wider geographical
area with a larger sample since this study only targeted Ngong Division.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5964]
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