EFFECTS OF PROCESS ORIENTED GUIDED INQUIRY LEARNING INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY ON STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL ALGEBRA IN BWARI AREA COUNCIL, ABUJA, NIGERIA

This study examined the effects of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) instructional strategy on secondary school students’ achievement and retention of algebra in Bwari Area Council, Abuja Nigeria. Four research questions guided the study based on the four purpose of the study highlighted in the work. Four research hypothesis were also formulated and tested at an alpha level of 0.05 level of significance. The research adopted the quasi-experimental non-randomized pre and post-test control group. Data were collected from a sample of 100 students comprising 53 boys and 47 girls from two randomly selected public schools in the Bwari Area Council. The schools were grouped into experimental and control group. A 20 item instrument called Algebra Achievement Test (AAT) developed by the researcher with a reliability coefficient of 0.83 using Kuder-Richardson formula 21 was used for data collection. The AAT was administered thrice, before experiment (Pre), after experiment (Post) and two weeks after post AAT (Retention test). Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and ANCOVA at coefficient alpha level of 0.05 for testing the hypotheses. Findings of the study are; there was significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught algebra with process oriented guided inquiry learning and those taught with conventional method, there was significant difference between the retention of students taught mathematics with process oriented guided inquiry learning and those taught with conventional method and There was no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught mathematics with process oriented guided inquiry learning. It was recommended that teachers in training should be trained properly on how to use Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) to teach mathematics in secondary schools