Abstract:
This study was designed to determine the effects of direct instruction and Wilson’s learning cycle on remediation of errors committed in logical reasoning by further mathematics students. Seven research questions were formulated and four hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The study employed the quasi-experimental design. Specifically, non- equivalent control group, pretest-posttest design. Sixty five (65) SSII students (44 males, 21 females) from four co-educational public secondary schools in Northern Education Zone of Plateau State were used for the study. Thirty three (33) students were involved in direct instruction and thirty two (32) students were involved in Wilson learning cycle. Purposive sampling was used to select schools that met the criteria of the study out of which two schools were randomly sampled using flip of the coin to assigned two schools into Direct Instruction (DI) and two schools into Wilson’s Learning Cycle (WLC). All the groups completed the same unit covered within a period of five weeks. The groups were taught by their further mathematics teachers after they had been exposed to training by the researcher. One instrument was mainly used for this study, Logical Reasoning Test (LRT) and its Marking Guide which is in form of rubrics consisting of seven (7) different types of errors. The errors were symbolic error, comprehension error, transformation error, process skill error, encoding error, careless error and logical error. This instrument was validated and the reliability coefficient determined after it was trial-tested. The reliability coefficient was determined using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and was found to be 0.96. Data obtained from the administration of the LRT and its Marking Guide was used for analysis using Frequency count and Percentages, Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U test. The findings showed that teaching Logical Reasoning (LR) using DI and WLC reduces the errors committed by Further Mathematics (FM) students. WLC appears to reduce errors more than DI. All the errors were prominent among male except for comprehension error and logical error which were prominent among female when taught LR with DI. Similarly, all the errors where prominent among male except for logical error which was prominent among female when taught LR with WLC. Female students committed fewer errors than their male counterparts with both DI and WLC. Based on the findings, it was recommended that workshops, seminars and conferences should be organized for teachers, students, parents (during PTA) to implement the findings of this study in classrooms, at home, among others for better outcomes in FM.
