EFFECT OF STRUCTURED AND GUIDED INVESTIGATION TECHNIQUES ON THE INTEREST OF COLLEGE STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS IN NIGERIA

SABITU, Kamoru Abiodun & LAMIDI, Taofeek Oyesola
Department of Science Education, School of General Studies Education,
Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, Oyo state, Nigeria
Corresponding Email: sabitu.kamoru1584@fcesoyo.edu.ng

Abstract
The main concern of the study is the attractiveness of the students to mathematics. The population for the study consisted of NCE students at teacher training colleges in Oyo State, Nigeria. Three hypotheses, tested at a significance level of 0.05, guided the study. The Mathematics Interest Inventory (MII) served as an instrument for data collection. The experiment to determine the coefficient of internal consistency of the MII items was performed using Cronbach Alpha. The reliability coefficient calculated for MII was 0.91. ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses. The
study found that both guided and structured interviews arouse students’ interest, but that the guided interview teaching method arouses students’ interest more effectively than the structured interview technique in mathematics. The study also found that there was an influence of gender on
students’ interest in mathematics, with boys being favoured. There were no interaction effects of treatment and gender on the interest of college students in mathematics. Therefore, the effectiveness of the guided inquiry technique on students’ interest in mathematics was independent of gender. It was therefore recommended that the Ministries of Education, and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) should regularly organize workshops, seminars
and conferences for Mathematics teachers to deepen and improve their knowledge and skills in using the teaching techniques with guided inquiry improvement, among other recommendations.
Keywords: Guided Query, Interest, Structured Query.