RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 Methodology

This chapter presents the method and procedure that was applied in this study.

It was organized under the following sub-headings: Research Design, Area of Study, Population
of the Study, Sample and Sampling Technique, Research Instrument, Validity of the Instrument,
Method of Data Collection, and Method of Data Analysis

3.1 Design of the Study

The research design that will be employed in this study will be a descriptive survey research
design. The choice of the survey research design for the study is necessitated by the nature of the
study to be carried out. This research is a survey research that is going to gather data from
members of the selected population with the aid of the questionnaire in order to determine the
influence of class size on the teaching and learning of Mathematics in Olamaboro Local
Government Area of Kogi State.

3.2 Area of Study

The study will be carried out in Olamaboro Local Government Area (LGA) of Kogi State,
Nigeria with its headquarters at Okpo. It is located in the southeast of Kogi State and lies
between latitude 7°11' and 7°34’ North and longitude 7°18' and 7°57' East. The LGA has 3
districts: Okpo, Ogugu and Imane. According to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FRN)
(2007), which reports the 2006 census, Olamaboro Local Government Area (L.G.A) has a
population of 160,152 people and a land mass of 1,132km 2. The Local Government Area shares
common boundary with Enugu and Benue State. The L.G.A has different public and private
secondary schools.

3.3 Population of Study

The population of this study is made up of all the secondary schools in Olamaboro local
government area of Kogi State. There are several government approved schools in the local
government out of which ten (10) were selected by researcher for this study. The selected
schools have the population that is fit for this study.
3.5 Sample and Sampling: To be included after the field work in chapter four is carried out

3.6 Instrument of data collection

The instrument used in collecting data for this research work was questionnaire method titled
“Influence of Class size on Teaching and Learning of Mathematics Questionnaire (ICTLMQ)”.
The choice of this instrument was promoted by its reliability and validity of the answers. This is
so because the interaction between the researcher and the respondents which could bias the
responses to the questions in the questionnaire is minimized.

The questionnaire was drawn on a 4 point rating scale of: strongly agree (SA), agree (A),
disagree (D) and strongly disagree (SD). The scale had been assigned values of 4, 3, 2, and 1
respectively.

Validation of instruments

For validation purpose, the questionnaire was presented to the project supervisor for adequate
criticism and screening to make sure the questionnaire is relevant to the research topic before it
was taken to the field by the researcher. This is to ensure that the questions asked are appropriate
for the study. It is expected that suggestions and modification would be offered to strengthen the
instruments so as to measure exactly what they are supposed to measure.

3.8 Method of data collection

Data for the study will be collected through the administration of the questionnaire. The schools
under study were personally visited by the researcher and with full permission of the principals
of each of the schools.

The teachers were presented with questionnaire divided into sections A-C. Under section A, the
survey questionnaire was used to provide brief information on the respondent’s personal data
(i.e. sex, school, qualification and age).

Section B is made of Strongly Agree, Agree, Strongly Disagree and Disagree constructed
questionnaire and it is on how students learn when the class size is below 40 students or when
the class size is above the 40 students.
Section C, is based on how effective teachers teach when the class-size is below 40 students or
above 40 students.

3.9 Method of data analysis

The research questions will be answered using the mean score and standard deviation to answer
the research questions. T-test statistical tool was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of
significance. The t-test chosen for this study because it is a non-parametric inferential tool used
for analyzing nominal data or test for impact or effects of two more variable (Emaikwu, 2006).
A decision rule based on real limits of numbers is used as follows: SA=4, A=3, D=2, SD=1,
giving a total of 10 points which will be divided by 4 to get 2.50. Since the four point rating
likert-scale type is adopted for the research, 2.50 is used as cut off mean score for data analysis,
if mean is 2.50 and above is accepted, while mean below 2.50 is rejected.