AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ATTITUDE OF STUDENT TOWARDS TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS ( EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The need to study mathematics becomes very important because it is a subject that affect almost all aspect of human endeavour. There is no area of study that does not use mathematics as a tools or guide in making her concept Clearer. Most students find it very difficult to study mathematics because of their ignorance about the importance of mathematics.
The social, economics, political, geographical and technological aspect of man are centered on numbers. Disciplines where numbers are predominant and form integral part of mathematics include statistics, account, arithmetic engineering, e.t.c for example, the earliest civilization of man kind came through mathematical manipulations.
The inter-relationship between mathematics development and advancement of human shows the importance of mathematics in life. Due to its numeric and symbolic nature, it is more related to the scientific and technological face of man’s world than toany other natural sciences.
However, the performance of students in mathematics has been a great concern to the society. Awokoya (1975) and Fafunwa (1980), both agreed in different researches that we live in a world where science and technology have become an integral part of the world culture. Therefore, for any nation to be relevant it must not over the importance of mathematics in her educational system.
The numbers of researches conducted in mathematics over the past two decades have increased drastically. Finding from these studies indicated that certain teaching strategies and methods worth careful consideration as teachers strives to improve their teaching practices in mathematics (Erakan, 2005).
