ATTITUDE OF PUPILS AND TEACHERS TOWARDS MATHEMATICS IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL IN ONNA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF AKWA IBOM STATE

ATTITUDE OF PUPILS AND TEACHERS TOWARDS MATHEMATICS IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL IN ONNA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF AKWA IBOM STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1           BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The government, parents, guardians, teachers and the general public have continued to show concern about the low standard of Mathematics Education and the consequent poor performance in Mathematics of our primary school pupils.

These concerns become very clear when we realize that Mathematics is the language of orderliness and ordered thinking as seen in things like travel time table, identification of pages in a book,  houses on streets and other methodical records that make use of numbers, measurement and shapes in everyday life.

Also Mathematics is the tool and language of scientific and technological development of any country. According to Fakuade (1975), the aim of teaching Mathematics in the Primary School should be two fold.

The first is its social and utility value to mankind and the second for laying the proper foundation for future work in Mathematics and the Sciences.

The first goes for those of our pupils for whom primary education will be terminal and a good knowledge of elementary Mathematics is of basic importance for general education upon which much of their future successes will depend.

The second is for those of them who may be proceeding to Secondary Schools to further education. The class of pupils should be challenged with enough Mathematics concepts, ideas and principles in order to give them the necessary background that will facilitate an easy take-off in the subject and in the sciences in the secondary schools.

The two-fold objectives can be subsumed in the national objectives for Mathematical instruction in Primary Schools in Nigeria as spelt out broadly by the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981) and specifically amplified as follows:

  1. To provide the child with the necessary basic skills in numeracy.
  2. To expose the child to ways of applying these skills to his problems.
  • To provide the child with basic manipulative skills useful in ordinary life.
  1. To provide the child with basic skills in logical thinking.
  2. To introduce the child to basic concept of spatial relationships; and
  3. To introduce the child to basic record keeping and aspects of accounting.

To achieve these objectives, the need for utilizing the services of competent, effective and sufficient Mathematics teachers cannot be overlooked.

One then is worried on how competent Nigerian Primary School teachers are with regard to their knowledge of the Mathematics content they teach their pupils.

According to Ali (1989), there is considerable concern among parents, teachers, educators and others that many primary school teachers as well as their prospective counterparts are not adequately competent in the Mathematics they teach or will teach primary school pupils.

He argued that many current primary school teachers and prospective ones were not far ahead of those they teach Mathematics. Records also show that Grade II Teachers are not even qualified to teach in the primary schools.

This was supported by Okpala (1991) when he observed that most primary school teachers were incompetent in teaching primary school contents because they passed through secondary schools and Teacher Training Colleges learning how to dodge Mathematics classes.

These were also the views of Ohuche and Obioma (1985) who found that most primary school teachers appeared to be incompetent in handling geometry, mensuration and everyday statistics of the Primary Education Mathematics Curriculum (PEMAC).

Against this backdrop that the study examines some of the basic problems of Mathematics teaching at the Primary School level with a view to solving them.

School curriculum, the teachers, the pupils, attitude of teachers and their pupils, instructional materials and language, etc. Pupils’ attitude towards Mathematics has been found to be generally poor (Okpala, 1991 and Ali and Akubue, 1987). The negative attitude of teachers and their pupils towards Mathematics have been found to adversely affect the teaching and learning of Mathematics.

The pupils’ unhealthy attitude towards Mathematics may be traced to the teachers’ own attitude and interest towards the subject. If a teacher dislikes Mathematics and thinks that it consist largely of rote learning and devoid of understanding, as is usually the case with some primary school teachers, he would transmit same to his pupils. Mathematics, although unique, is not significantly different from other subjects in terms of difficulty level.

The teacher needs to do a little more job erasing the stories of fear built around.

1.2           STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

        Following the poor performance of primary school pupils in Mathematics nationwide, stakeholders in collaboration with National Policy on Education towards Mathematics aimed at managing attitudinal change amongst stakeholders reverse is the case.

Generally, schools get scared whenever Mathematics is mentioned. Many pupils miss Mathematics lessons, those who take the lessons have varying attitudes towards Mathematics classes. Records revealed that the academic performance of pupils in Mathematics also vary from satisfactory to very unsatisfactory; the teachers of Mathematics have vary attitudes towards teaching of Mathematics. Some teachers have been known to envy teaching Mathematics subject while others are known to be lukewarm.

Nobody knows the causes of the pupils’ poor academic performance in Mathematics and their varying attitudes towards the subject nor can anyone account for teachers’ nonchalant attitude towards the teaching of Mathematics. Teachers apportion blame to the government for failing to supply adequate instructional materials for the teaching of Mathematics to stimulate interest in the pupils; the parents blame the teachers for failing to do excellent jobs to enable their wards inculcate interest in Mathematics; the teachers blame the pupils for indiscipline and failure to study adequately.

No research has been conducted to the knowledge of the researcher in Onna L.G.A. to determine the causes of pupils and teachers attitude on Mathematics in Primary Schools in Onna L. G. A in Akwa Ibom State.

1.3           OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

        The objectives of the study are as follows; and to:

  1. Find out some possible causes of poor performance in Mathematics at primary level in Onna L. G. A.
  2. Examine the attitude of pupils and teachers towards primary Mathematics in primary level in Onna L. G. A.
  3. Determine how Mathematics is rated among other subjects in the primary school curriculum in Onna L. G. A.
  4. Identify the governmental policies towards Mathematics in Primary level in Onna L. G. A.
  5. Recommend and suggest ways of encouraging and improving the teaching and learning of Mathematics in primary level in Onna L.G. A.

1.4           RESEARCH QUESTIONS

        The following research questions were formulated for the study:

  1. What is the attitude of pupils and teachers towards the teaching and learning of Mathematics at the primary level in Onna L. G. A?
  2. To what extent do pupils attitude relate significantly to pupils achievement in Mathematics in Onna L. G. A?
  3. Does pupils negative perception of Mathematics subject affect their academic performance in Onna L. G. A?
  4. Does the rate of teachers’ mastery of Mathematics subject matter influence pupils perception and performance in the subject in Onna L. G. A?
  5. Does availability and appropriate use of instructional material affect the pupils’ academic performance in Onna L. G. A?
  6. What teaching methodology is best perceived by teachers as most suitable for the teaching of Mathematics in primary level in Onna L. G. A?

 

1.5           RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The following research hypothesis formulated for the study:

  1. Ho: There is no significant difference between teachers and pupils attitude towards Mathematics in Onna L. G. A.

Hi: There is significance difference between teachers and pupils attitude toward Mathematics in Onna L. G. A.

  1. Ho: There is no significance difference between male and female pupils’ attitude towards Mathematics in Onna L. G. A

Hi:  There is significance difference between male and female pupils’ attitude towards Mathematics in Onna L. G. A.

  1. Ho: There is no significance difference between male and female teachers’ attitude towards Mathematics in Onna L. G. A.

Hi:  There is significance difference between male and female teachers’ attitude towards Mathematics in Onna L. G. A.

  1. Ho: There is no significance relationship between teachers’ attitude and the use of instructional materials in Primary Mathematics in Onna L. G. A.

Hi:  There is significance relationship between teachers’ attitude and the use of instructional materials in Primary Mathematics in Onna L. G. A.

  1. Ho: There is no significance relationship between teachers’ qualification and pupils attitude towards Mathematics.

Hi:  There is significance relationship between teachers’ qualification and pupils’ attitude towards Mathematics.

1.6           SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The importance of Mathematics has been a front burner in national discourse in Nigeria. For sometime now, emphasis in Nigeria has been on pupils and teachers’ attitude towards Mathematics rather than the analysis of what constitutes this attitude. In view of these and obvious facts on the subject, it is expected that the findings of this study will be of vital importance to the pupils, Mathematics teachers and curriculum planners/designers.

It is hoped that the result of this study will enable the pupils and teachers to know those things that affect their attitude towards Mathematics and to improve upon them. It will also help various Ministries of Education to know what the actual structure defects in Mathematics education are.

This study will also enable the Federal Ministry of Education to identify the main problems of Mathematics education such as poor learning attitude from pupils and lack of qualified teachers. The findings of this study will improve pupils’ performance in Mathematics; identify and advance explanations of pupils’ poor performance and attitude towards Mathematics; the data would assist the teachers in evaluating the appropriateness of the specific learning outcomes and the course content for the particular type of pupils being taught. The result will also reveal whether sex has any role to play in pupils’ performance in Mathematics and this issue will seriously attract scholars and psychologists into much academic findings. The result of the findings and recommendations of this work will enable the teachers of Mathematics to seek to develop and improve the pupils’ attitude towards the study of Mathematics. Finally, this study will lay some foundation for further research in the area of attitudinal study in Mathematics.

 

 

1.7           ASSUMPTIONS

  1. Pupils attitude will be more positively influenced at their formative stages.
  2. Teachers attitude will influence pupils co-operation in the teaching of Mathematics which calls for collective responsibility.
  3. Teachers generally have negative attitude towards primary Mathematics.
  4. Pupils generally have negative attitude towards primary Mathematics.
  5. Pupils’ attitude towards Mathematics subject can be measured with the use of questionnaire.
  6. Teachers’ attitude towards Mathematics subject can be measured with the use of questionnaire.
  7. The randomly selected schools in Onna L. G. A are representative of the Primary schools in those areas in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.
  8. The responses of the study were to the best of their knowledge and ability.

 

 

 

1.8           LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Several factors impeded this research study even though it was accomplished. Several visits to the ten (10) selected Primary Schools out the total twenty six (26) in Onna Local Government Area depleted the finances of the researcher. It took the management four weeks in granting the researcher audience. Bureaucratic bottleneck was glaring demonstrated in the course of minuting the letter of introduction by the respective headmasters/headmistress for information and necessary action.

The respondents (primary pupils and teachers) were not excited at the filing of the instruments (questionnaires). Questionnaires distributed to the respondents were received grudgingly and researcher retrieved from some of them while those retrieved were not properly filled.

Researcher made additional cost of production of questionnaires to meet the required number which serves as sample size for the study. Some of the resource persons were not prepared for the interview while those that granted interview were evasive on knotty issues which serve as impediments toward collating full scale information.

 

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