Effects of Inquiry-Based Learning and Gardner’s Learning Styles Classifications on Secondary School Students’ Mathematics Achievement in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

The study examined the effects of inquiry-based learning and Gardner’s learning styles classification on secondary school students’ mathematics achievement in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Two (2) research questions were raised in line with two (2) null hypotheses. The study was delimited to SSS II of government secondary schools in Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja. The study adopted a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. The population of the study comprised five thousand one hundred and ninety seven (5197) SSS II from which a sample of one hundred and thirty-six (136) students was drawn using multi-stage sampling technique. An intact class of sixty-three (63) students was used as experimental group while another intact class of seventy-three (73) students was used as control group. The instruments for data collection were Students’ Learning Styles Questionnaire (SLSQ) and Students’ Mathematics Achievement Test (SMAT). The instruments were validated by 3 mathematics education experts. The reliability of the SMAT was ascertained by split-half method and then Spearman-Brown prediction formula yielding a coefficient of 0.82. The reliability of the SLSQ was ascertained by Cronbach alpha and it yielded a coefficient of 0.88. Frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation and Two-way Mixed ANOVA were used to analyze data. The findings of the study revealed that: there were significant differences in the mathematics achievements of secondary school students with the different learning styles taught using inquiry-based learning and conventional method; apart from the logical-mathematical intelligent who had distinctive mathematics achievement irrespective of the teaching method used, inquiry-based learning was the most effective method for the linguistic-verbal but least effective for the naturalistic intelligent, while conventional method was most effective for the linguistic-verbal intelligent but least effective for the interpersonal intelligent. It was recommended that educators should identify students’ learning styles and tailor teaching methods to suit their learning styles; and they should also incorporate more learning opportunities to accommodate diverse learning styles.