Effects of Activity-Based and Guided-Discovery Teaching Strategies On Students’ Academic Performance and Retention in Geometry in Secondary Schools in Central Senatorial District of Kogi State

This study investigated the effects of activity-based and guided-discovery teaching strategies on students’ academic performance and retention in Geometry in secondary schools in the Central Senatorial District of Kogi State. The study was motivated by the persistent difficulty experienced by secondary school students in understanding and retaining geometrical concepts and the need to identify more effective learner-centred instructional strategies. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design, specifically the pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test non-equivalent control group design. The study involved 300 Senior Secondary II students, comprising 110 students in the conventional teaching group, 90 students in the activity-based teaching group and 100 students in the guided-discovery teaching group. Data were collected using the Geometric Performance Test, which consisted of 40 multiple-choice items and had a reliability coefficient of 0.84. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and two-way ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that students taught using guided-discovery teaching strategy obtained the highest mean academic performance score of 74.87, followed by students taught using activity-based strategy with a mean of 68.18, while students taught using the conventional strategy recorded the lowest mean of 54.25. The difference among the three groups was statistically significant, F(2,297) = 189.423, p < .001. Similarly, guided discovery produced the highest retention mean of 74.87, followed by activity-based instruction with 68.18, while the conventional group recorded 53.74; the difference was statistically significant, F(2,297) = 266.941, p < .001. Gender and school location also had significant main effects on academic performance, although neither significantly interacted with teaching strategy. The study concluded that activity-based and guided-discovery teaching strategies were more effective than conventional teaching in improving students’ academic performance and retention in Geometry, with guided discovery producing the strongest outcomes. It was recommended that mathematics teachers should incorporate guided-discovery and activity-based strategies into Geometry instruction and that schools should provide the instructional materials and teacher training required for their effective implementation.