MATHEMATICS AVOIDANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SELECTED FACTORS IN BENDEL STATE OF NIGERIA (AFRICA)

摘要

This study examined the relationships existing between student attitudes toward mathematics or student interest in continued study of mathematics and other variables (gender, socioeconomic status, prior achievement, perceived support, school type, level of attainment and teacher characteristics, attitudes, and perceptions of instructional conditions) in secondary schools in Bendel State of Nigeria.;Statement of the Problem. In Nigeria there is a clear problem cycle in which students have negative attitudes toward mathematics and school policies permit students to avoid taking mathematics; as a result, fewer people with advanced training in mathematics are available to enter teaching; and this may lead to poorer teaching, which may contribute to more negative student attitudes. The question is how to break into this cycle. There is an urgent need to find or consider ways to change student attitudes toward mathematics, but first we need to know what other factors may be related to student attitudes. This is the issue examined in the present exploratory study.;Procedure. Students who participated in the study were form one and form four students and the mathematics teachers of the randomly chosen classes. Two instruments, a student questionnaire and a teacher questionnaire, were administered in three urban and two rural schools. Open-ended questions were included in each of the questionnaires.;Analysis of Data. Essay questions were content analyzed and product-moment correlation, the t-test, and analysis of variance techniques were used to determine relationships among the selected variables, or to identify differences between groups. Subgroups used for the analyses included gender, socioeconomic class, school type, and level of attainment.;Findings. Student attitudes and interest were differentially related to the variables explored. Gender, mathematics achievement, and class attained were significantly related to student attitudes toward mathematics. Gender, mathematics achievement, perceived support, class attained, and type of school attended were significantly related to interest in continued study of mathematics. Boys, higher achievers, and students in form four mathematics classes and urban schools had more positive attitudes and/or more interest in continued study of mathematics. Results of the essay questions added more descriptive detail to the statistical findings.;Suggestions, both for further studies and to mitigate the problem, were outlined.