Teachers’ and Students’ Perception of Mathematics Pedagogical Issues in Junior Secondary Schools in Ikorodu, Lagos State

Abstract

The study examined teachers’ and students’ perception of pedagogy of mathematics in junior secondary schools Ikorodu, Lagos State. The population comprises of all the teachers and students in Ikorodu area of Lagos. The study adopted non-experimental design of descriptive research type. A total of 30 teachers and 130 students were randomly selected from the five junior secondary schools in Lagos State to take part in this study. Perception of teachers' and students' pedagogical issues in junior secondary was used for data collection. Validity of the instruments was 0.79 while a general reliability index of 0.96 was determined using Kuder Richardson formula 20 (KR20). The data obtained was analyzed using frequency and percentages and Pearson product moment correlation analysis. The results revealed that majority of the teachers and students had a positive perception of pedagogy of mathematics while a minority of teachers and students had a negative perception. Furthermore, the teachers and students agreed that pedagogy of mathematics promotes learning of mathematics while some few disagreed. It was also found that most (83%) of the teachers and students believed that teachers should make use of pedagogy of mathematics to effectively teach mathematics while only 17% disagreed. The Pearson’s correlations coefficient is show a strong strength at 0.605 between perception of students and teaching methods at 0.05 level of significance. Generally, the findings from this study suggest that teachers and students in junior secondary schools in Lagos State have a positive perception of pedagogy of mathematics and believe that it is an effective approach in teaching mathematics. It is therefore recommended that teachers in junior secondary schools in Lagos State should make use of pedagogy of mathematics in their teaching of mathematics to enhance the learning of mathematics.