Effect of Dienes base ten block manipulative on middle basic pupils’ performance in Mathematics in rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study focused on the effect of Dienes base ten block manipulative on middle basic pupils’ performance in mathematics in Obio/Akpor local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria. Quasi-experimental design of pre-test and posttest was adopted. The population of the study consisted of 4,503 basic five pupils in 55 middle basic schools in the local government area. The sample of the study was one hundred and ninety-three basic five pupils. The multi-stage and simple random sampling techniques were used to select two schools and basic five level of primary education. One hundred and two students were in the experimental group while the control group was 91 students; and in all 72 high ability and 121 low ability students. The instrument used for data collection was Mathematics Performance Test (MPT) with twenty (20) multiple choice items in Highest Common Factor and Lowest Common Multiple and types of fractions. Three research questions and three hypotheses were answered and tested at 0.05 level of significance respectively. The study used mean, standard deviation and ANCOVA for analysis. It was found among others that: there was a significant difference in the performance mean score of pupils taught mathematics with Dienes base ten block manipulative and those taught using the deductive teaching method; and there was a significant difference in the performance of pupils taught mathematics with Dienes base ten manipulative and those taught using the deductive teaching method. It was also found that Dienes base ten block manipulative improved the academic performance of students in mathematics. It was recommended among others that, the Dienes base ten block manipulative should be procured and used in public primary schools.