CHAPTER TWO

2.0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Introduction

This chapter deals with the ground overview of the factors influencing the attitude of

secondary school students towards the study of mathematics.

Much of the works so far done has been centered on investigations on problems of

teaching mathematics in school. Some authorities have called the same, gives insight to what

this problem focuses upon. So, these literatures will be reviewed so long as they bear

resemblance and shed light on the study.

A study on the attitude of secondary school students to the study of mathematics

carried out by Jimoh (2005) revealed that:

i. Most students in Nigerian secondary schools in the lower classes have interest in

mathematics.

ii. That most students in secondary schools regard mathematics as a difficult subject.

iii. The most of the students in secondary schools in Nigeria prefer solving numerical

problems to those written in words.

In a study on the problem of teaching mathematics in Nigeria school, Idang (2005)

found out that at the root of mathematics problem in what one could call “maths syndrome”,

maths fright” or “maths phobea” – the fear of mathematics which learners of prospective

learners of the subject are prone to, students regard mathematics as a jigsaw, puzzle, as

something baffling.

“This defeatist and inhibiting attitude led to vicious cycle of false fear and living true

to the fear. Being psychologically defeated, they proceed to know it. It is simply the case of a

coward dying many times before his death”.

 In his words of Ademola (2000), “many of those who took mathematics were not

interested and considered it a useless study”.

Bimbo is worried about students’ attitude towards the subject which he considered an

important ingredient in technological growth. In his words, “Almost everybody is aware of

the predicament in which students imagine themselves to be, whenever mathematics crosses

their way. In primary schools, pupils avoid arithmetic lessons and when WASC knocks at

their doors, they go about looking for question papers with ready-made answers”. He

concluded by saying that we should see the need to make the force of attraction between

students and mathematics much stronger than it is now.

According to Fakuade (2004), an average Nigerian child is capable of learning

mathematics successfully up to the ordinary level of the General Certificate of Education. He

observed that the performance in mathematics is well-run, well-staffed and well financed

schools like Government college and schools and other isolated, well manage institutions are

such that one would believe that the majority (80%) of students in such schools take kindly

to mathematics. In other words, the intellectual ability to the students for mathematical

learning is quite robust.

He quoted Piaget as “saying that early childhood (3-6 years) is the period during

which children are capable of learning to achieve some essential and perhaps advanced

concepts in elementary mathematics”. This, under favourable conditions children who have

the advantage of exposure to mathematics situations at home and in their surroundings can

gain accelerated knowledge of mathematics, quite early before reaching school age.

He observed that in Nigeria, most of the children that go to school come from poor

homes and environments that devoid them of mathematical learning. Nursery school

education, for most parents is a luxury, and most of the ordinary schools which they finally
attend are very poorly maintained, no form of enrichment is present for teaching

mathematics and the sciences. Thus, for most children, the pre-primary and primary school

years are a period in which accelerated learning is not enhanced. With haphazard learning,

the children proceeded to the secondary school where he must have lost the kind of direction

required for successful mathematics learning.

Ademola (2006) found out the results for over 45 major studies carried out under

school and university conditions indicate that mastery learning has effects on student’s

cognitive and affective development and their learning rate.

Mastery learning procedure can enable four-fifths of students to reach a level of

achievement which less than one fifths attain under conventional, uniform group-based

instruction procedures. The additional time needed for this is 10% to 20% of the normal

class time. He quoted Bloom as saying “the strategies seem to be especially effective for

those students who typically has problems in that kind of learning task (subject matter).

Research is repeatedly demonstrating that individual differences in achievements time

or rate of learning are largely a function of the preparatory or prior instructional approaches

and that for subjects where most of the students have achieved the pre-requisite learning,

mastery procedures appear to be able to eliminate the effects of individual differences in

social learning approach a vanishing point”. Assumptions of Blooms model of mastery

learning is that;

All or almost all students can learn well if:

1. Instruction is systematically approached.

2. Students are provided with adequate help when and where they have learning

difficulties.

3. They are given sufficient time to achieve mastery.

 4. There is some clear criterion of what constitutes mastery.

Mastery methods also produce markedly greater interest in and better attitudes towards

the material learned than more conventional approaches.

They seem to help most students overcome feelings of defeatism and pessimism

brought to learning. Their powerful affective consequences may be attributed to many

factors especially the cooperative rather than competitive learning conditions, personalized

attention to each students learning problem, successful and rewarding learning experiences

and the use of certain correctives which add a personal-social aspect of the learning.

He concludes “mastery approaches have been successfully used in teaching

mathematics to biological and social science students”. Bruner (2002) said “any subject can

be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of

development”.

Fischbein (2006) analyzed Piaget’s work as showing clearly that intelligence and

attitude develops through a series of stages. Each fundamental system of knowledge must be

anticipated and prepared for in early stages. According to this law, the learning of

mathematics structures during the period of concrete operations by means appropriate to this

period. This will permit the structures to become efficient instruments in mathematical

thought.

Faluade (2009) observed that in the schools’ facilities to aiding learning are limited,

teaching aids, like audio-visual aids, suitable textbooks and other teaching equipment are

luxury items.

In some schools, there may be more. In many schools, there is no provision for

laboratories and in some cases no spaces for storing materials or for experimenting and

trying things out.

 Osigwe (2007) said “most of the subjects such as mathematics are often taught

vaguely without aid to make the teaching-learning process visible and lively”.

On the top of it all, the teachers are few in numbers and they have short teaching

experiences and in some cases are of doubtful qualification. To this effect Fakuade (2004)

said “This quality of the generality of mathematics teachers throughout the country leaves

much to be desired. In the case of secondary school teachers, although the mathematics

content taught those of them that have passed through university and advanced Teachers

Colleges seems adequate, their exposure to methodology and modern techniques in

mathematics is slight. On the whole, the majority of the available mathematics has very short

teaching experiences. Again, the in-service training for this category of teachers is

inadequate in content and frequency.

Omaze (2003) said “we have many untrained teachers, shortage of qualified staff and

incessant transfers. This problem becomes more acute in a state that has a free educational

programme. As no educational systems can be better than the quality of her teachers, the

solution of this problem lies in professionalizing teaching”. He referred to Imogie (2001)

who found out that professional graduate teachers [Link] (Arts) and [Link] (Science) had low

rate of turnover than the non-professional graduate teachers (B.A/[Link] university graduate

without certificate).

Again, some mathematics teachers in our secondary schools today do not motivate

their students enough to learn or study mathematics. Ogunsola (2006) said “numerous

studies indicate that positive motivational policies and techniques produce not only greater

human satisfaction but also higher productivity”.

Poffenbeg and Norton (2003) found that teachers who affect students’ attitude and

achievement positively are those who;

i. Display strong interest in the subject.

ii. Indicate the desire to have students understand the material.

iii. Display good control of the class without being over strict.

Earl and Winkle (2004) share the view that “the attitude of the teacher towards a

subject area and the teaching of the subject are certainly important variables to consider

when describing the teacher’s function within the classroom”. In the words of John Willey

and Company (2008), “improvement in teachers’ interaction with students can affect the

students’ achievement and attitude”. Regarding attitudes, they said “dues about the

characteristics of classrooms where students own description of their eight classrooms where

instruction move at slower pace, are more goal directed, are less difficult and where there is

better physical environment and less favouritism”. Education in chemistry (2006) remarked

that pupils of all abilities respect teachers who obviously enjoy and are knowledgeable about

their subjects.

They respect one who is prepared to work hard on their behalf – in less preparation,

presentation at their level of understanding and in training for external examinations and will

respond by giving of their best efforts”.

Idang (2005) in his study on the problem of teaching mathematics found out that some

teachers by their approach discourage their students especially those who are “undecided” by

giving the impression that the subject is so difficult that only special people can learn it.

They simply mystify the subject by helping to spread the tale that mathematics is esoteric

thereby instilling fear into the lazy and the undecided. This he attributed to the fact that the

teachers are not conditioned to the proper psychological approach to the teaching of

mathematics. They therefore scare students away to cover their shortcomings.

 As for the actual teaching of the subject, we found that most teachers approach is

wrong. They charge that most teachers do not do enough to motivate the learners by making

the subject enjoyable. They say further that most teachers like to use learning by role-

method. They just drum the laws into their student and ask them to memorize them.

He also complained of “teacher-center” approach to instruction and suggests that the

teaching of mathematics should be “student centered”. By this, he means teachers should not

dominate the class; rather, it is the student who should. He advocated that what is called

inquiry method by which is meant, the teacher should pilot or guide the students to discover

rules for themselves.

Osigwe (2007) said “it has only been discovered that in some cases that many teachers

too form the habit of avoiding some topics prescribed in the syllabus, thereby giving room

for half baked knowledge of the subject”.

Idang (2005) quoted Kalejiaye as saying that present mathematics classes are too large

and do not make for class supervision so the size of the classes should be reduced so that

teachers will be able to perform.

William (2006) sought to determine “student attitude did exist among subjects in the

database of a large-scale evaluation project, compensating for potential making effects of

teacher attitude and student achievement. The result of the study revealed that no firm

evidence was found to support the belief that better generation of positive attitude towards

science is directly associated with smaller instructional unit at the high school level. This

observation will seem to imply little support for theories proposing that effective reactions of

students to subject reason may be invoked e.g. maintenance of personal identity, individual

rapport with the instructor, opportunity for participation

 Southerland (2002) has this to say on social influence “in his population the most

important predictors of students’ attitude towards mathematics were attitude of father,

mother, achievement level and grade level. Turne (2003) reported also that perceived

material variables were directed predicators of expectation of daughters and this was found

to be significantly higher in the girls than in the boys as regards the mean level of career

expectation.

As for medium of instruction, Taiwo (2001) said “The way pupils are introduced to

mathematics in many primary school s has been more than anything else responsible for the

dread (and at time hatred) that many of them have for the subjects by the time they reach

secondary school”. He said that the adverse effect of the use of a foreign language as the

medium of education in primary schools cannot be over looked. It is hard enough for the

primary school teacher to explain concepts to the pupils in a way which would make them

understand even if he uses mother tongue. Let alone compelling him to do it in a language of

which he can badly claim mastery.

In the project carried out to find the effect of foreign language on attitude of student, it

was found out that there is marked differences between the attitude towards mathematics of

the pupils in the senior primary classes of the Yoruba project schools, where the medium of

education is the mother tongue and the pupils in the senior primary classes of the “ordinary”

schools. The pupils in the project schools show interest not only in learning mathematics but

also in doing mathematics.

He said that in mathematics, more than in any other subject, the teacher’s teaching

ability is enhanced when he teaches in a language he clearly understands, as this will enable

him to have good grasp of the concept he wishes to put across.

 Fakuade (2004) said “with regard to the problems of the children, one should not

forget the limitation of the use of a language other than the mother tongue, as the medium of

instruction and learning. Although, surveys and researches in this area are still very few, the

few available ones support the view that pupils and students are much handicapped in their

learning by the use of a foreign language for teaching and learning. The workshop on

language and the teaching of science and mathematics with special reference to Africa,

sponsored by the Commonwealth Association for Science and Mathematics Education

established that language problem in the teaching and learning of mathematics in Africa as

formidable one. All these are evidences that Nigeria children suffer a great deal of learning

limitations both at home and at school.

What can be concluded from this review are;

1. That many students “Fear” mathematics and they see it as an impossible task.

2. That authorities believe that if mathematics is taught well in the primary schools

students’ attitude will improve.

3. That the many factors responsible for the attitude of student include the attitude of the

teacher himself to the subject, his own limited knowledge, lack of teaching aids,

attitude of parents, class size and the use of foreign language in teaching mathematics.