Effects of circle-the-sage strategy on secondary schools students’ numerical ability in physics in Nigeria

: The study examined the effect of the circle the sage instructional strategy on students' numerical ability in Physics in senior secondary schools in Ikere local government of the area of Ekiti state. A sample of sixty (60) students was selected for the study. A self-structured Physics Numerical Ability Test was used for data collection. A pre-test post-test quasi-experimental research design was employed for the study. Two secondary schools in Ekiti state were chosen for the study. A test-retest method was employed to ascertain the reliability of the instrument, using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Three (3) hypotheses were formulated for the study. Self-constructed twenty items of multiple choice questions were used to collect the data, and the data collected were analysed using ANCOVA. The findings of the study revealed that there was no significant effect of treatment on the numerical ability of students in Physics, there was no significant effect of gender on the numerical ability of students in Physics, and there was no significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on the numerical ability of students in Physics. Therefore, the study recommended that, though there was no effect of the circle the sage strategy on students' numerical ability, circle the sage with other strategies should be used to teach Physics at all levels and be incorporated into the teaching of Physics at the secondary school level.


Introduction
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (2009) described Physics as the study of matter, energy and their interactions. Physics can also be defined as the study of energy and matter in space and time and how they are related to each other. Physics is generally regarded as the fulcrum of all technological advancement. This simply means that physics affects all areas of technology. It also establishes that behind every technology there is physics. In a nutshell, the discipline plays a vital role in the future progress of human kind. There are many areas of specializations in the Physics such as atmospheric physics; physics electronics; medical physics, geophysics and Physics education. This Physics education is an integral part of everyone's life. It produces required knowledge useful for future technological advances that will continue to drive the economic engines of the globe (Aladejana & Olusola, 2022;Betz et al., 2013). It contributes to the technological infrastructure and provides trained personnel needed to take advantage of scientific advances and discoveries (Cueto & Leon, 2012;Daly et al., 1997). Hence, all school systems need to have provision for studying Physics education. Physics in senior secondary schools is usually offered by science students. This Physics is learnt in senior secondary to prepare the students to be great engineers and scientists in The Table 1 showed inconsistencies and fluctuations in the performance of senior secondary schools students in physics in years 2006 to 2019 under review. Xraying the factors responsible for the performances of students, Galli et al. (2008) established a positive correlation between students' performance and their numerical ability in physics in senior secondary schools. Infact, that there is no concept in physics that cannot be expressed numerically (Ukoh & Abiola, 2017). Ballado et al. (2014) described numerical ability as the capacity to relatively solve problems in number sequencing, ability to interpret complex data presented in various graphical forms, make deductions that are Mathematically accurate by employing advanced numerical reasoning, deduce information and draw logical conclusions. In the field of science. the number and operations aims to assist the learners to comprehend the numbers; representation of number; the associations between numbers and numerical systems and decode the meanings of operations (Hambleton et al., 1991;Hattie, 1984). Being a mathematical subject, students who have effective mastery of numerical aspects of Physics have more opportunity of performing well in physics. Numerical ability is significant in academic achievement of the students in Physics (Galli et al., 2010). Also, Higginson (1992) reported that there was significant difference between performance of Physics students taught numerical ability with various instructional strategies and those taught with lecture method.
Moreover, gender difference occured in numerical ability in favour of male students (Ameer & Singh, 2013) but Patel and Sawant (2019) and Shaw (1990) reported that there was no significant difference in the numerica ability of students based on gender and Awodun et al. (2014) found that gender of students does not determine sudents' performances in physics. (Aladejana & Fatoba, 2022;Myers, 2003) described this gender ascharacteristic whelther biological or socially influenced.
Circle the Sage is a cooperative learning where the teacher polls the class to see which learners have special knowledge to share on a topic. Those learners become the sages. They stand and spread out in the classroom. The teacher breaks the remaining learners evenly into teams and teams send members to different sages, (with no more than two members of the same team going to the same sage). The sage explains what they know while the mates listen, ask questions, and take notes. All learners thereafter return to their teams. Hence, this study examined the effect of circle the sage strategy on students' numerical ability in Physics in senior secondary schools in Ise local government of area of Ekiti state.
Despite the high position offered to Physics in Nigerian education system, it is disheartening that approaches and strategies for teaching and learning of this subject at secondary schools levels still remain traditional (Achor et al., 2013;Ashadi & Rice, 2016). There has been so much agitation from educational stake holders about the poor performance of students in Physics and several factor have been identified as responsible for the poor numerical ability of students which are of classroom interaction which are part to the insufficient interaction between the teacher and the students. Despite the value and importance of mathematics in secondary school, the subject still seems to be difficult for students as evident in their low achievement in the subject especially at external examination (West African Examination Council, 2006.
The question therefore is what is the cause of this poor academic achievement of students in Physics? Is the fault entirely that of the teacher or teaching methods? Thus, the study aimed at providing answer to the question:-What are effects of circle the sage strategy on students' numerical ability in Physics in senior secondary schools? Therefore, this study aimed at finding out effect of circle the sage strategy on students' numerical ability in Physics in senior secondary schools in Ekiti state, Nigeria.
The following hypotheses were formulated for the study: Ho1: There is no significant effect of treatment on students' numerical ability in Physics. Ho2: There is no significant of effect of gender on students' numerical ability in Physics. Ho3: There is no significant interaction effects of treatment and gender on students' numerical ability in Physics.

Methods
A 2x2 pre-test post-test quasi experimental research design was used. The sample for the study was made up of sixty (60) students. Simple random sampling technique was used to select sixty (60) students from two senior secondary schools in Ise local government area. The schools are randomly assigned to two treatment groups. The research instrument used in this study was twenty (20) objective questions used for the pre-test, post-test tagged Physics Numerical Ability Test (PNAT). Both content, construct, face, criterion validities of the instrument was carried out and the reliability coefficient of instrument was 0.72 using Kuder-Richardson 20. The analytical technique used to analyze the data collected was ANCOVA analysis carried out at 5% probability level of significance.  Table 2 indicates the effect of the treatment on students' numerical ability in physics. It was revealed that the significant value is F (1,99) = 1.261, P (0.05), partial η 2 = 0.119 is higher than significant value 0.05. This indicated that the group does not differ significantly on the effect of the treatment. Hence the null hypothesis was not rejected. There was no significant effect of treatment on numerical ability of students in Physics.  Table 3 presents a one-way between subject analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) conducted on the effect of gender on numerical ability of students in Physics, F(1,99) = 3.373, p<0.05, Partial η 2 = 0.034 which higher than significant value of 0.05. Hence, the null hypothesis was upheld. Therefore, there was no significant effect of gender on students' numerical ability. The result in Table 4 shows the effect of students' gender on numerical ability of student taught physics using circle the sage strategy. The ANCOVA reveals that students' gender have effect on their numerical ability in the posttest since F(1, 99) = 0.903, p<0.05, Partial η 2 = 0.009. Hence, the null hypothesis was not rejected. This implies that there was no significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on numerical ability of students in Physics.

Hypothesis 3: There is no significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on numerical ability of students in Physics
The study is on the effect of circle the sage strategy on students' numerical ability in Physics in senior secondary schools in Ekiti state, Nigeria. The descriptive analysis of the study pointed out homogeneity in the achievement test by the respondents as there was marginal difference in the mean scores of boys and girls taught physics using circle the sage strategy.
The finding of the hypothesis one revealed that there was no significant effect of treatment on numerical ability of students in Physics. The study showed that, circle the sage strategy has no effect Momentum: Physics Education Journal, 6 (2), 2022, 185 on numerical ability of students in Physics. This finding contradicts the findinds of Ogunleye and Oladehin (2012) who found that circle the sage instructional strategy improved overall achievement, (numerical ability inclusive) of students in Basic Science The finding also revealed that there was no significant effect of gender on numerical ability of students in Physics. This implies that the null hypothesis that state that there was no significant effect of gender on numerical ability of students in Physics was upheld. Hence, there was no significant effect of gender on students' numerical ability. This finding is in disagreement with the findings of Awodun et al. (2014) who found that gender of students does not determine sudents' performances in physics.
The finding further showed that there was significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on numerical ability of students in Physics. The study further showed that numerical ability of female students in Physics that were taught using circle the sage strategy performed better than male students with a mean score of 9.75 and standard deviation of 2.381 against 9.80 with a standard deviation of 2.860. However, the finding concurred with Pearpoint et al. (1992) that gender differences favored girls in learning Physics and that males performed low in tasks that involve learning the concept of Physics.

Conclusion
The findings have led the researcher to conclude that circle the sage strategy has no effect on students' numerical ability in physics in Ekiti state. By applying Circle the Sage strategy, the students were more enthusiastic in learning. Though the students enjoyed the learning process since they were given chance to actively interact each other and shared what they knew about the material. Nevertheless, Circle the Sage strategy made the students more motivated to learn because they were arranged to teach each other and discuss in a team. Meaningful circle the sage strategy is an effective way of explaining concepts to students. Circle the sage strategy has the potential of promoting and maintaining students' numerical ability in physics since it makes the learning process more real and easy to comprehend by learners.
Based on the findings of this study, it is evident that gender has no significant effect on students' numerical ability. Lastly, the study concludes that significant difference existed in gender performance with respect to the two strategies employed in the experimental group. Female students outperformed their male counterpart when been exposed to circle the sage strategy.
Based on the findings made so far, the researchers therefore recommend the followings; (1) Circle the sage strategy should be used in combination with other strategies to teach Physics at all levels; (2) Nevertheless, circle the sage strategy should be incorporated into the teaching of Physics at the secondary school level since it stimulate students to effectively learn and retain the concepts presented to them; (3) Teachers should ensure they plan their lessons with equal learning chances for both male and female students for effective delivery in senior secondary schools in Ekiti State; (4) Teachers should make adequate use of teaching facilities for effective transfer of knowledge in teaching Physics.