LEARNING CIRCLE CONCEPTS IN THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL II STUDENTS IN BAUCHI STATE

Abstract

The study was set to investigate how Vygotsky's notion of mediation tools in a teaching intervention can be used in learning circle concepts. A mixed method design was employed in this study. The data collected for the study include; pre and post-test on circle concepts, observation of students' actions, and level of progressions during the teaching intervention. One hundred JSS II students' randomly drawn from two schools in Azare metropolis constituted the sample for the quantitative study. Quantitative data was analyzed using percentage. On the qualitative data, observation of students' work was described. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the students' responses in the pre-test were within the categories of either attempted, but incorrect response or no response. After the teaching intervention, there was significant shift indicated by move from incorrect and no response to more students' providing correct responses. This indicated a significant move within the students' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). There was also a wide gap between the experimental and control group in the post test, with 76% of correct responses in experimental group and only 24% in the control group. Based on the findings of the study it was recommended that teachers should be using Vygotsky's idea of teaching intervention in the ZPD can enrich teaching practice by providing conceptual model for analyzing learning difficulties observed in the classroom.