DEVELOPING STUDENTS' CREATIVITY AND ACHIEVEMENT IN GEOMETRY THROUGH PLAYFUL GEOMETRIC ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The subject of geometry- a great component of mathematics is advisably supposed to be taught and learnt in practical and active situations. That is to say that geometry teaching is supposed to be learner-centred, meaning that learners become the focus of instructions. Unfortunately, however, geometry teaching in the current researcher's study area is predominantly handled in passive situations. Geometry teachers here mostly employ a teaching approach which emphasizes routine arithmetic which as a basic feature, encourages learners to memorize and repeat . The result is that learners can only use memorized straight - forward computational procedures to solve geometric problems. So they tend to have a limited understanding of geometrical ideas and develop only a shallow level of thinking. Teachers need to use methods that could not only steer students into active participation in the teaching/learning process but also steer them into critical thinking about geometric phenomena. Evidence from research shows that when students are made to be the center or focus of instruction, they are made to participate actively in the teaching/learning process and to think critically about geometrical activities. This investigation employed the use of playful activities, to explore the properties of plane geometric shapes. In particular, the investigation used mosaic or puzzle and other playful, geometrical activities for this exploration. In this exploration, student made sense of the properties of such plane shapes as rectangles, triangles, trapezia, etc. The researcher used the quasi-experimental design for the conduct of the study. A Sample of one hundred and eighty (180) Senior Secondary two (SS2) students randomly drawn from three clusters of schools was used. Eight research questions were asked to guide the conduct of the investigation and three (3) null hypotheses were formulated and tested at the 5 % level of significance. Two instruments known as the Critical Thinking Geometry Test (CTGT) and the Achievement in Geometry Test (AGT) were developed and used for information collection. Gathered data were analyzed by using standard deviation and the t-test statistic. Based on findings, recommendations were proffered.