THE EFFECT OF TIMING OF TEACHING RELEVANT MATHEMATICS PRINCIPLES ON ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY

Abstract

This study is on the influence of a prior knowledge of mathematics principles on achievement in chemistry. The researcher investigated whether or not students’ achievement in chemistry could be improved by teaching them selected mathematical principles before teaching chemistry or teaching them selected mathematical principles simultaneously with chemistry. The study was carried out in Anambra State Nigeria. The design is quasi-experimental involving 300 secondary 2 students from six secondary schools distributed into three groups. Group one was taught mathematics before chemistry, group two, was taught mathematics simultaneously with chemistry, while group three received no special mathematics lesson. The groups were pre-tested with an instrument comprised of 50 multiple choice questions in chemistry and post-tested with a reshuffled edition of the pre-test after experiment. The researchers used ANCOVA to analyze the results, which revealed that the students taught mathematics before chemistry outperformed other groups.

Keywords

• chemistry
• high school assessments
• science education
• mathematics
• secondary education