Abstract

• The major purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of heuristic method on students’ mathematics achievement at the lower secondary level. Quantitatively, an experimental study was used to compare the mathematics achievements of the students between the control and experimental groups. The students from the experimental group were taught by heuristic method. The students from the control group were taught by formal teaching method. One of the true experimental designs, namely, the posttest only control group design was used. In this experimental study, the participants were (120) Grade Seven students from two schools: Basic Education High School, Sintgaing and Basic Education High School, Hingu. Learning materials were selected from Grade Seven Mathematics Textbook. It contained Chapter (5) Algebraic Equations from Mathematics Textbook Volume I and Chapter (4) Symmetry from Mathematics Textbook Volume II. Independent samples t test was used to compare the differences between the two groups. Research findings revealed that teaching by heuristic method had a positive contribution to the improvement of mathematics teaching. It was interpreted that teaching by heuristic method was effective in raising students’ mathematics achievement at the lower secondary level.