COMPLETE SCHOOL PROJECT TOPICS & MATERIALS :
CHAPTERS: Chapter 1-5
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between teachers’ characteristics as the cause of SSS1 students’ attitudinal changes in mathematics. The study was guided by education production function which connects students’ attitudinal changes to teachers’ characteristics. The study objectives were to: to determine if the qualification of teachers have an effect on the attitudinal changes of students in mathematics, to find out if teaching experience is related to attitudinal changes of students in mathematics, to examine the relationship between teachers classroom effectiveness and students’ attitudinal changes and to ascertain the influence of teachers skills/expertise on the attitudinal changes of students in mathematics The study was conducted in Akwa Ibom State. The target population was comprised of one hundred and twenty (120) teachers from ten selected secondary schools. The study applied a descriptive research design. A questionnaire and an interview guide technique were used for data collection. Data was analyzed using simple percentages while the stated hypotheses were tested with Chi square. The study revealed that teacher characteristics have enormous influence on students’ attitudinal changes in mathematics. The teachers’ attitude on students, the demographic characteristics of teachers and their qualification had a significant influence on students’ academic achievements. The researcher therefore recommends that schools should employ qualified teachers in relation to subject learnt/their subject area, preference should be given to teachers with longer years of experience as they stay more on the job, teachers should consider having a full understanding of the school curricula and imbibe these characteristics needed to influence attitudinal changes. Teachers should not see cases of very low performing students as hopeless but should still have high expectations for students’ attitudinal changes by investing more time on those students.
Further research can be done so as to establish the extent of influence of other education factors such as gender, social-economic effects, environmental and peer pressure.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Mathematics is a pivotal subject to any art of useful living and societal development. The depressed state of mathematics education in Nigeria has been a source of concern for Mathematics Educators, Mathematicians, Government and all those who care about the subject.
Mathematics according to Horsby (2012) is the study of structure, order, number, space, quantity, change and that it is a relationship which revolves around the elementary practice of counting, measuring and describing of shapes and objects. This view is supported by Websters (2015). Mathematics is used throughout the world as an essential tool in many fields, including natural sciences, engineering, machines, and the social sciences. According to Ilori
(2013), “the role of mathematics is diversified” In her own contribution, Adedayo (2017) regarded Mathematics as the key to a productive and fulfilling life. She said; “Mathematics can be regarded as key performing many diversified functions in life” It is therefore the key to positive cognitive development, successful daily living, scientific development, modernization, successful career, productive employment, good citizenship, lifelong learning etc. Understanding Mathematics requires one knowing that it is a subject and as a subject it can be studied, learnt and understood. Also, being a subject, it is a body of knowledge governed by some particular characteristics and features that the subject is expected to exhibit.
According to Adekoya (2018), Mathematics is a core subject and the place it occupies in the National Policy on Education makes it one of requisite subject for some courses at the higher level of education. But on the contrary, Ukpebor and Ozobokeme (2017) saw Mathematics as being depressed. Hence, they stated that the depressed state of Mathematics education in Nigeria has been a source of concern for Mathematics Educators, Mathematicians, Government and all those who care about the subject. Agwagah (2016), also stressed that despite the role of Mathematics in National Development, its study has not been effective in meeting the needs of National Development in Nigeria.
Some topics in Mathematics often pose difficulty to students, either for reason of inability on the part of the teachers to effectively teach the topics or limitation caused by the students’ failure to master the requisite knowledge of the topics or a prior aspect necessary for the understanding of the topics at hand.
Recent investigation by Awoshiyan (2016), identified lack of students’ interest as one of the problems in teaching and learning of mathematics. Also, it has been observed by the researcher from experience in teaching that when the mathematics topic is being taught students seem to lose interest especially when they begin to notice the many related topics.
Supporting other researchers Adeniran (2018), concluded that despite the great importance of mathematics it is the most dreaded of all subjects and quoted someone who perceived mathematics thus “a beautiful bride that people love to hate.” Also, many of the mathematics teachers seem not to be skillful in handling topics. The responses by the mathematics teachers and students of the survey of the problems of teaching and learning Mathematics by Ukpebor and Ofobokeme (2017) shows the fact that “qualified Mathematics teachers are insufficient in number. Research conducted by Mcleod and Armstrong (2018), discovered that some topics students found difficult to learn were those skipped or never taught by teachers. All these, definitely could affect the effective teaching of Mathematics.
Instructional materials/teaching aids which can be inform of concrete models or manipulative materials enhance quality teaching and learning. According to Aligba and Kurumeh (2018), availability of relevant instructional materials like textbooks, geo-board, overhead projector, computer and other ICT materials among others determine to a large extent students’ achievement in Mathematics. Their interaction with some of the students at secondary and tertiary levels show that students fear Mathematics because it is very abstract, hence, the availability and the use of relevant teaching aids in teaching concept in mathematics in secondary school will be an area of interest in this study.
Development programmes are meant to keep the teachers abreast of recent development in Mathematics. The importance of in-service training was emphasized in the National Policy on Education where it was stated that in service training should be developed as an integral part of community teacher education and also take care of all inadequacies FRN, (2014). Inadequacies could be when a teacher was not taught or not well taught in detail some topics as a student. Most teachers lack the spirit of moving with times. Since students lack the culture of reading or self-study, every good teacher must have to appreciate the need to reformat the teaching approach and methodology to suit the dictates of the time.
Students play important role in the subject under discussion. Are they exposed to the necessary skills required for the understanding of topics before being exposed to it? How serious are students with their academic work?
Are they equipped with the necessary materials such as textbooks to enable them solve problems on their own?
Society is growing, modernization is on the increase and students are moving with the dictates of time. Students’ involvement with the social environment (non-school activities), handsets, novel internet facilities such as facebook, instant messaging and chart room seem to affect their time of study, concentration and understanding of Mathematics. Commenting on societal attitudes, Adeniran (2018) stated that today’s students study mathematics in an environment with societal attitudes that are often indifferent and or hostile to the learning of mathematics.
Teachers have a direct responsibility to shape a student’s attitudinal changes, and are the most important school-based factor in their education (Rockoff, 2014; Rivkin, Hanushek Kain 2015; Aaronson, Barrow & Sander, 2017). This is why it is important to examine which teacher characteristics may be related to student attitudinal changes.
Considering which teacher characteristics produce the best student attitudinal changes at the Senior Secondary School level can help the school in identifying unique ways to increase student performance with the teacher resources available to them.
Excellence in academic life demands high level of intelligence; but in addition to intelligence, recent studies have indicated that there are other factors that can be useful predictors of attitudinal changes (Busato, Prins, Elshout, & Hamaker, 2019; Chamorro Premuzic & Furnham, 2013). One of the factors is teachers’ characteristics.
Teachers cannot be undermined in the discussion of knowledge transfer or education in every way. Teachers are very instrumental to the transfer of knowledge. Ali (2019) observes that there is a statistically significant relationship between teachers’ characteristics and student attitudinal changes.
According to Thompson, Greer, & Greer (2015) there are twelve characteristics that are central to what students conceptualize as good teaching which connect to the caring for students, both academically and personally and strengthen recent indicators for attitudinal changes.
These characteristics are: displaying fairness, having a positive outlook being prepared, using a personal touch, respecting students, maintaining high expectations. Possessing a sense of humor, possessing creativity, admitting mistakes, and being forgiving, showing compassion and developing sense of belonging for students.
As humans, we possess an ingrained sense of fair play. We react negatively whenever we are dealt with by someone in a manner that violates what we think constitutes fairness in a situation. Any sign of favoritism, or lack of fairness, can leave scars that last a lifetime.
Borich (2012) suggests that effective teachers are those who use meaningful verbal praise to get and keep students actively participating in the learning process.
Effective teachers are generally positive minded individuals who believe in the success of their students as well as their own ability to help students achieve.
Competence and knowledge of the content area being taught is something that makes a well-prepared teacher more likely to take time during lessons to notice and attend to behavioral matters, effective use of instructional time, student participation and thereby, academic success.
Teachers must show interest in their students, as this promotes bonding. Teachers with a sense of humor make learning fun. If a teacher has a quick wit and the ability to break the ice in difficult situations with the use of humor, students recognize the strength reflected in these teachers, as they provide a wonderful model for how to deal with embarrassing situations effectively.
Students remember unusual things that their teachers did in their teaching. They remember how it related to a subject matter being taught which captivated their interest.
Irvine (2014) suggests that students defined teachers who set limits, provides structure, held high expectations and pushed them to achieve as their favorite teachers. Generally, these behaviors affect student learning. Working to include these traits into everyday teaching routines will ensure that students have a positive school experience as well as a successful one.
Rice (2013) recognized five broad categories of teacher attributes that appear to contribute to teacher quality. They are experience, preparation programs and degrees, type of certification, course work taken in preparation for the profession, and teachers’ own test scores.
Performance as a variable is linked to the teachers’ experience, resulting from the ideas generated in the course of learning, training, acquired classroom management skills/expertise. Teachers’ experience has a significant effect on student performance in the sense that students taught by more experienced teachers achieve at a higher level, because their teachers have mastered the content and gained classroom management skills/expertise to deal with different types of classroom problem (Gibbson, 2017); therefore, attitudinal changes of students is dependent on the characteristics that a teacher portray.
According to Mumare & Philip (2015), experience has a significant positive effect on the connection that exist between the quality of a teacher and the attitudinal changes of students cannot be over emphasized because they both work hand in glove in showcasing how quality education could be enshrined in an academic process and this could be inferred from the words of Strong (2017); that asserted a positive relationship between teachers’ verbal ability and students’ achievement.
Parents are keen at seeing their children enroll and graduate from prestigious educational institutions as most compete to offer their best educational programs and be at the fore front of academic excellence. People who are directly involved in the students’ academic life are the teachers who provide help to these students.
Classroom teachers are primarily responsible for student academic achievement as a school’s primary focus is on the academic preparation of students.
Statement of the Problem
There is no doubt that in the process of learning and mastering many topics of different subjects, some seem difficult for students to understand and hence affect their performance. Mathematics from time is a subject that students seem to dread, perhaps because of the way some teachers handle it without given consideration to individual differences or because of figures, calculations, formulae and some drawings or sketches that are involved (Adekoya, 2018). He further said that secondary school students with learning difficulties generally make inadequate progress in Mathematics, and their achievement limited by a variety of factors.
Despite the increase in educational attainment by teachers in trying to improve on their qualification and skills/expertise the attitudinal changes of students in senior secondary schools has not been encouraging. This is reflected in the falling standard of education in view of the performance of students in examinations like Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE), Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), etc.
There is a persistent decline in the attitudinal changes of SSS students in spite of the huge government budgetary allocation on education. There is a prevalent rise in examination mal-practices, where parents, teachers and even stakeholders in the economy spend heavily on prepared solution and ‘assistance’ from teachers to make their students pass examinations without merit.
This has led to a high degree of failure to breed students that are worth their certificates and is giving the country a serious cause for concern.
Functional educational system most time depends on the adequacy of some indispensable behavioral traits of teachers, such as qualification, experience, and skills/expertise among others hence the need for further investigation.
The problem which this study seeks to solve is identify teachers’ and students’ perception of students’ difficulty in understanding Mathematics as a mathematics concept, to identify the conditions that facilitate the perceptions and suggest possible ways to promote the understanding of Mathematics in secondary schools.