The Impact of Teaching Strategies on Students’ Understanding of Circle Theorems

Abstract

This action research focused on improving the understanding of Circle Theorems among Grade 11 students. Geometry is a core area of secondary school mathematics, yet many learners experience ongoing difficulties when working with geometric ideas, especially in reasoning and application. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of selected teaching strategies and visual aids to support students’ understanding of Circle Theorems. The study used a mixed-methods approach. A pre-test and a post-test were used before and after the intervention to obtain quantitative information about students’ performance. Qualitative information was gathered through classroom observations and semi-structured interviews. For quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics, a paired-samples t-test, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, and effect size measures were applied. The qualitative information was examined thematically to understand changes in students’ learning behavior and the difficulties they encountered during the intervention. The findings showed that students’ understanding of Circle Theorems improved after the intervention. Many students demonstrated better reasoning and were more confident when explaining geometric ideas. Classroom observations and interview data showed that students slowly shifted away from rote procedures and developed a better understanding of how concepts were connected, while the study also noted several changes during the intervention. These included limited lesson time, lack of access to digital devices, difficulty adjusting to new learning approaches, and anxiety when solving problems that required several steps. Based on these findings, the study concludes that the use of carefully planned teaching strategies and visual aids can support students’ learning of Circle Theorems. Addressing the identified challenges may help to improve the effectiveness of geometry teaching in similar classroom contexts