The effectiveness of using mathematics dictionary in enhancing pupils’ performance and efficacy in learning polygons

Abstract

The Mathematics dictionary is a potential learning tool for students to learn effectively. A subtopic was chosen from geometry which is Polygon topic, is use to identify the effectiveness of using the Mathematics dictionary in enhancing pupil’s performance and self-efficacy. This study aimed to identify the performance and self-efficacy of the upper primary school pupils after implementing Mathematics dictionary. A total of 20 upper primary school students in primary 6 in School A were participated in this study. The research design for this study was a quasi-experimental study. Pre-test and post-test were used to measure the performance of the students. Subsequently, the respondents were given a self-efficacy questionnaire to measure their level of self-efficacy in learning Polygon topic. The findings showed that there is a significant improvement in their post-test (mean = 9.70), as compared to the pre-test (mean = 7.75). The findings in the normality test showed that pre-test (p-value = .193) do not have enough evidence to state that the population is not normally distributed, whereas for the post-test (p-value = .000) is the contrary. As comparison with both pre-test and post-test, it showed a significant value (0.00), which showed the improvement in performance. In other words, the mathematics dictionary could enhance the students’ performance. The students’ self-efficacy level is high (median = 3.00), which showed that the students have high self-efficacy after the implementation of Mathematics dictionary. The findings of this study indicate that it is important for students to use the Mathematics dictionary in an effort to help them improve their achievement and self-efficacy in the topic of Polygons.