ABSTRACT

The study investigated the effects of formative testing and feedback on low achieving students’ achievement and self-concept in mathematics in upper basic schools in Abia State. To guide the study, five research questions were posed and five corresponding null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the quasi-experiment research design with pre-test- post-test non-equivalent control group. A total of 65 respondents drawn from a population of 1832 low achieving mathematics students in upper basic schools using purposive sampling technique from three co-educational upper basic schools in Abia State. In each school, one intact class was randomly drawn and the intact classes were also randomly assigned to the treatment and control conditions. Three research instruments namely: Low Achievers’ Identification Questionnaire (LA1Q), Mathematics Achievement Test, (MAT) Self-Concept Questionnaire (SCQ) and three training programmes namely: Formative Assessment Lesson Plan, Feedback lesson Plan and Conventional Lesson Plan were developed, validated and used for the study. The Mathematics Achievement Test, (MAT) Self-Concept Questionnaire (SCQ) were used for pre-treatment and post treatment assessments. The validity of the instruments were determined by two experts in Mathematics Education and two in Measurement and Evaluation, all lecturers in the College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The LAIQ and SCQ had Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficients of 0.72 and 0.81 respectively while Kuder-Richardson was used to establish the reliability of Mathematics Achievement Test and it yielded a coefficient of 0.70. Mean scores and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses and tested at 0.05 levels of significance which revealed the following findings: Formative and feedback experimental group had higher mean score at posttest. There was significant difference in the achievement scores of low achieving students exposed to formative testing/feedback and conventional method. There was significant improvement in the achievement and self-concept mean scores in mathematics of low achieving students exposed to formative testing only. Gender did not have significant influence on the achievement and self-concept of low achieving mathematics students exposed to formative testing and feedback.  It was recommended that mathematics teachers should adopt the use of formative testing and feedback in teaching low achieving students in order to increase their achievement, also regular feedback in student progress should be communicated to increase students’ self-concept in Mathematics.