Effects of Learning-About-Learning on Senior Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Mathematics by Birth Order in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria

This study assessed the effects of learning-about-learning on senior secondary school students' achievement in mathematics by birth order. The study adopted a pre-test post-test, and control group quasi-experimental design. The population of the study comprised all the SSII students in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, out of which a sample of 75 students was selected from two purposively sampled schools based on three criteria. Two intact classes from the two schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups to be taught using the learning-about-learning approach and the lecture strategy respectively. The study lasted for five weeks. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were raised to guide the study. There were two instructional guides, a Personalized Learning Data Form (PLDF) was used to collect data on students' learning for the experimental group, and a Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) was the instrument used for data collection. MAT had a reliability index of 0.83 using Kuder-Richardson Formula 21 (K-R 21). The research questions were answered through mean and standard deviation, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that treatment had a statistically significant effect on students' achievement in mathematics. The findings further showed a non-significant effect of treatment on students' achievement in mathematics by birth order. It was recommended amongst others that; teachers should adopt the learning-about-learning approach to enhance students' achievement in mathematics.