TITLE:
Variations between Elective and Non-Elective Mathematics Students of Colleges of Education in Using Metacognitive Strategies to Solve Geometric Theorem Problems
AUTHORS:
Abubakar Yakubu, Henry Kwami Apoenchir
KEYWORDS:
Metacognition, Elective, Non-Elective, Misconceptions
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.4,
April
3,
2024
ABSTRACT: As a result of the shift from Objective Based
Curricula (OBC) to Standard Based Curricula (SBC) which emphasizes the
attainment of standard levels of competence and skills by learners, there is an emergence of
high interest in the use of metacognitive strategies in the learning of
mathematics. Working in groups or individually, learners design own strategies
to solve problems, reflect on their work for evaluation and adoption of
alternative approaches to the problem being solved for better results. These are
approaches that fall in line with metacognitive strategies. This research piece
sought to determine any differences in metacognitive strategies that may exist
between elective mathematics students and non-elective mathematics students in
colleges of education. Using a mix of two techniques of sampling, proportionate
numbers for the sample were drawn from two colleges of education which were purposively selected. Data were collected to test the null
hypothesis of whether elective and non-elective mathematics students
differed in their use of metacognitive strategies when solving GT problems. Results of the independent samples t-test showed no significant differences (t(298) = -0.248, p = 0.2805) between elective
mathematics students (M = 45.83, Sd = 8.27) and the non-elective mathematics students (M = 45.57, Sd = 10.27) when using metacognitive strategies to solve problems on GT.