Effects Of Testwiseness Training On Test-Anxiety And Achievement In Mathematics Among Selected Secondary School Students In Ekiti State.

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of testwiseness training on test anxiety and achievement in Mathematics among selected secondary school students in Ekiti State. The moderating effect of gender and cognitive ability was also investigated. The study employed the pre test-post test control group, quasi experimental research design. A total of four hundred and twenty five (425) participants consisting of two hundred and nineteen (219) male and two hundred and six (206) female Senior Secondary two (SS2) students drawn from six secondary schools in Ado-Ekiti through stratified random sampling procedure participated in the study. Testwiseness training module and traditional teaching method were used as treatment approaches while the control group was exposed to only the traditional teaching method. Three instruments; SocioDemographic Questionnaire (SDQ), Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) and Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale-Revised (MARS-R) were used to collect data for the study. Eight hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and data collected were treated statistically using Analysis of Covariance while pair-wise comparisons were performed using Fisher‟s protected t-test. All hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. Results of the data analysis revealed that testwiseness training was efficacious in improving the Mathematics performance of students and in reducing their Mathematics anxiety level while training in test-taking strategies was significantly most effective for low ability students. There was no gender difference in the students‟ performance in Mathematics. Testwiseness training was equally effective in helping both male and female participants in improving Mathematics achievement and managing their Mathematics Anxiety levels. Based on the findings of this study, some conclusions were drawn, a number of recommendations were made and some suggestions for further research were also stated.