EFFECTIVENESS OF CONCRETE PICTORIAL ABSTRACT APPROACH IN ACHIEVING COGNITIVE INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES OF SEVENTH GRADE MATHEMATICS

Abstract

A quasi-experimental study was conducted to compare the efficacy of Concrete Pictorial Abstract Approach (CPA) and prevailing Activity Method of Teaching (AMT) in enabling seventh grade students to accomplish the instructional objectives of mathematics in various levels of cognitive domain. The experimental design utilized two intact divisions of seventh grade, one as control group (AMT-group) and the other as experimental group (CPA-group), from an elementary school affiliated to Kerala Board of Public Examination (KBPE), Govt. of Kerala. Three units from the mathematics textbook were taught to the control group by employing the AMT and the experimental group by using CPA-approach. Pre-intervention and post-intervention measures of achievement of instructional objectives in six different levels of cognitive domain, viz, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, was done with the help of an achievement test developed by the investigators. Covariate analysis revealed that no true difference between AMT and CPA in accomplishing knowledge level instructional objective. While the CPA was found significantly better than AMT in achieving understanding-, application-, analysis-, and synthesis level instructional objectives of mathematics, the AMT was found significantly more efficient than CPA in enabling the learners to attain evaluation level instructional objective of mathematics.