Exploration of Teachers Content Knowledge in Mathematics Word Problems
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the study was to assess the level of mathematics word problems acquired in the content of Senior Secondary School in relation to teachers‘ ability and students‘ performance in Kaduna state. Specifically, the following were the objectives to:
- Determine the relationship in basic mathematics abilities of the students and
- Determine whether there is a sex difference in mathematical abilities of the Senior Secondary School students.
- Investigate whether there are differences in mathematical abilities based on School
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
The goal of this research is to determine whether there is a significant difference between the level of mathematics proficiency possessed by teachers and senior secondary school students as compared to what is expected of them. It will also examine the strengths and weaknesses of the students in relation to their gender and location in Kaduna State across the five content domains of the senior secondary school mathematics curriculum.
Senior Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum
The subject of mathematics is well-established in the school curriculum. Although the value of mathematics is widely acknowledged, there is disagreement over the subjects that should be covered in the curriculum, how those subjects should be taught, and the general goals of studying mathematics. The public’s expressed worry about pupils’ mathematical proficiency prompts educators to thoroughly assess student accomplishment. The general mathematics curriculum in Nigeria was originally divided into six sections in 1989 (Number and Numeration, Algebraic Processes, Mensuration, Plane Geometry, Trigonometry, and Statistics), but has since been revised to only have five content areas, which are more in line with NCTM, with each section being taught once during the three years of the Senior Secondary School program. NERDC (Nigerian Educational Research Development Council), 2007, stressed this. In order to make the mathematics curriculum in Nigeria’s primary and secondary schools more current or adaptable to changes that occasionally occur in society, it has undergone a number of changes recently in terms of content, performance objectives, activities, methods, and materials (NERDC, 2007). One of these recent developments is the abandonment of the 6-3-3-4 system of education, which calls for six years of elementary school, three of junior high, three of senior high, and four of university study. The NERDC published a 9-year mathematics curriculum for basic and senior secondary education in 2007 as a result of this modification (FGN, 2004). The overall goals of the secondary school mathematics curriculum, however, have not changed in a similar manner (Odili, 2006).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
The main purpose of the study was to assess the level of mathematics word problems acquired in the content of Senior Secondary School in relation to teachers‘ ability and students‘ performance in Kaduna state. This chapter attempted to explain the research design and the procedure of investigation followed in order to carry out the study. The procedure adopted for the selection of population, sample size, sampling procedure, research instruments and statistical technique used in the study was discussed.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS, ANALYSES AND DISCUSSIONS
Introduction
The purpose of the study was to assess the level of mathematics word problems acquired in the content of Senior Secondary School in relation to teachers‘ ability and students‘ performance in Kaduna state. This Chapter presented an analysis of data obtained from this Study. The scores obtained by the students and teachers in the tests were used for the analysis and interpretation of results. Statistical parameters such as mean scores, standard deviation, Pearson product moment of correlation coefficient (PPMCC), T-test and F-test Statistic (one way ANOVA) were used and presented.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter presented a summary of the results of the findings in this study. Suggestions are offered for the improvement of students‘ low performance and teachers‘ preparedness at the senior secondary school.
Summary
The main hypotheses tested in this study were four hypotheses using various statistical parameters such as means, standard deviation T-test, F-test one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient.
The result of the hypothesis tested showed there were differences but not significant ones in mean performances of the students and teachers, male and female students and also in urban and rural student‘s performances but on the content domains there are differences in the students‘ performances which is also not significant. This may not be unconnected with some extraneous variables that might have affected the research process in one way or the other and the problem of using only objective and theory questions only and also administered two different tests for students and teachers. The performances of students were found to be weak and it varied across the components of the school mathematics curriculum contents and the levels of performance according to sex and locations. The areas of difficulties among the SSIII students in the senior secondary school mathematics curriculum under Number and Numeration include simplifying fractions using the four basic operations, standard form involving decimals with both positive and negative powers, rationalizing surds and differentiating between decimal point and significant figures were areas of difficulty. However Number and Numeration is one of the two areas that students were found to be deficient compared with other areas.
Conclusion
From the research findings one can conclude that the students performance in mathematics in the various curriculum content domains of senior secondary school was low, the results were as follows:-
- The students and teachers performance in the tests administered showed that only 56(24.03% of the sample) students scored the minimum 40% pass mark, while 9 (75% of the teachers) scored above the minimum 40% pass mark which was determine by constructing 95% confidence interval for the mean difference.
- The students performance were better in statistics with a (mean: 8.53), Algebra (mean:94) while the students are deficient in Measurement with a (mean: 5.19), Number and Numeration (mean: 5.32) and Geometry (mean: 5.91) as mean scores out of twenty marks. These showed a slight difference with the previous studies at JSS level which showed Number and Numeration as the less deficient area, at SS III level it is also a deficient area.
- The level of performance of both male and female students at senior secondary school showed that sex difference exist but not significant in the various content domains as also indicated In various studies previously conducted at the JSS
Performance in Mathematics associated with school location (urban and rural) was also investigated. The findings showed that urban students out performed rural students
These findings implied that remediation for low mathematics achievement among the senior secondary school students should be pursued vigorously.
Recommendations
- As students performed poorly in three of the content areas and fairly in two of the content areas, the result will serve as an encouragement to teachers, mathematic educators and curriculum planners to launch new strategies on how mathematical skills could be taught so as to alleviate this problems as its affects the general performance of the students. More efforts and emphasis should be made on how to acquire these mathematics abilities during the teaching and learning
- Teachers should pay more attention to the topics identified in (5.3) as areas of difficulties to most of the students. They should do their best to see that difficult concept and symbols were properly understood by the students in the process of teaching and learning.
- Many schools visited by the researcher during the investigation witnessed that there are lack of relevant and suitable teaching aids designed to support the teaching and learning of mathematics at the senior secondary school level. It is in view of these that the researcher recommends the dare need for curriculists to develop relevant teaching aids to support the study of mathematics. Mathematics authors and publishers are also challenged on the need and urgency to prepare teaching aids in mathematics at this level in oder to concretized the teaching and learning
- Overconfidence in solving problems in Number and Numeration has resulted in a lot of computational errors. Thus students should be advised to be more careful in their computations so as to avoid making unnecessary mistakes; a lot of exercises need to be done.
- The result indicated that male students outperformed female students; it is recommended that more research should be carried out to find the cause effect of the sex difference in mathematics performance and how to improve female participation in Mathematics so as to eliminate this imbalance. Such findings should be made available to school teachers who are the principal actors in the implementation of the Mathematics curriculum.
- This study has also confirmed that location of schools in urban or rural areas affects the students performance in the content domains, the urban students performed better than the rural
- It is recommended that both urban and rural schools should be provided with the basic needs for a school to function well such as structures, facilitities therein, qualified teachers, text books, teaching aids and proper supervision from the inspectorate
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