Effectiveness of Tangram in mathematics teaching at secondary level

Abstract

This is an experimental research entitled "Effectiveness of tangram in teaching mathematics at secondary level." The objective of this study were to compare the achievement of the student taught by using tangram and without using tangram and to find out the effectiveness of the tangram in teaching mathematics at secondary level. For this study, pre-test post-test nonequivalent group design was adopted. Two public schools were chosen purposively so as to make average standard of school with respect to academic performance, physical facilities, class size and ethnicity. From each school 20 students from grade IX were selected for the sample of the study. The experimental and control group were determined by tossing a fair coin. Both experimental and control group were taught by researcher on the topic geometry at grade IX. Achievement test was the main tool to assess achievement of students and class note were used to collect information. An achievement test was constructed, standardized and administered before the experiment started. The experiment was conducted for the duration of twenty one days. After twenty one days, another achievement test, post-test was administered on both groups and the mean score was calculated. The difference in mean achievement score were tested by using t-test at 0.01 level of significance. It was found that the mean achievement score of students taught with using tangram was higher than the mean achievement score of students taught without using tangram. Therefore, it is concluded that use of tangram is an effective means of teaching geometrical concept in secondary level.