INSIGHTS OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ON MATHEMATICS TEACHING AND LEARNING IN EBONYI STATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

The need to improve the performance of students in mathematics examinations gave rise to this study, ‘Insights of Teachers and Students on Mathematics Teaching and Learning in Ebonyi State Secondary Schools’ with the aim to better their performance. The study is a descriptive survey research design made up of 962 (52 teachers and 910 students) respondents drawn out of the  228 mathematics teachers and 161,969 secondary school students in 222 public or government owned secondary schools in Ebonyi State. The study made use of 17 items four point scale questionnaire called ‘Insights of Teachers and Students on Mathematics Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ITSMTLQ)’. Data generated was analyzed using weighed mean and standard deviation and z-test statistics for hypotheses.  Mathematics Teachers should be using learner centered method and materials for teaching mathematics. The study also discovered that classroom interactions between mathematics teachers and students are always very cordial. And mathematics teachers are always friendly in the classroom during teaching and learning of mathematics and likewise the students. Students are allowed to ask question and teacher also attend to students’ question. Both teachers have a common interest during teaching and learning of mathematics which is championed by the interest of passing mathematics examination. The three hypotheses were tested and result show that there is no significant difference on the opinions of Teachers and Students on the actions and reactions but on the third hypothesis their opinion differ. The researchers recommend that mathematics teachers should be making use of methods such as; demonstration  method and laboratory method which are judged to be more effective in mathematics lesson delivery. The study saw that they need for adequate sensitization of students on the importance of mathematics to them as an individual and the society at large .