Effectiveness of problem solving method in teaching geometry

Abstract

This is an experimental research related to find the Effectiveness of Problem Solving Method on Students' Achievement in Teaching Geometry at Grade IX. The objectives of this study were to find out the effectiveness of problem solving method on student's achievement in teaching geometry at grade IX and to explore the students' perception and practice towards the problem solving approach in learning geometry at grade IX. A pre-test and post-test of quasi-experimental research design was used to compare the achievement scores of experimental group and control group. The experimental group was taught by using problem solving method whereas the control group was taught by traditional method. There were 30 and 32 students in experimental and control group respectively from same locality. To measure the effectiveness of problem solving method in teaching mathematics, the researcher developed and administered both pre-test and post-test. The test scores were collected and descriptively analyzed by using different mathematical tools such as mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, t-test. The duration of instruction was about three weeks. After the completion of experiment, researcher collected the data from mathematics achievement test and an opininonnaire. The achievement test was used to compare the achievement of the students taught by using problem solving method and traditional method and opinionnaire was used for the experimental group to explore the students' view towards the problem solving method. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the average achievement score of experimental and control groups on post-test. This finding illustrated that the students in the experimental group performed better when using problem solving method than the students of control group who were taught by traditional teaching method.