Pre-engineering students’ perception of mathematics teachers’ knowledge and instruction

Abstract

Theprimeaimofthestudywastoinvestigateandunderstandfirst-yearpre-engineeringstudents’ perceptionsaboutmathematicsteachers’ knowledgeandinstruction.AcasestudymethodwasemployedasamodeofinquiryandaLikert-typesurveyfordatacollection.Participantsincluded158first-yearpre-engineeringstudentsandfivemathematicsteachersfromAssosaUniversity,Ethiopia.IBMSPSSstatistics20wasusedtoanalyzethequantitativesurveydata,andopen-endedqualitativequestionswereanalyzedbycreatingcommonthemes.Themeanscoreforeachcategoryofteachers’ knowledgewascomputed.Accordingly,thehighermeanwasobtainedforsubjectmatterknowledge,andthelowermeanwasobtainedforinstructionalrepresentationandstrategiescategory.Thestudyrevealedthatstudentsbelievetheirteachers’ subjectmatterknowledgeisconstructive.Studentshaveconfidenceintheirteachers’ subjectmatterknowledge.However,studentsalsobelievethattheirteachers’ teachingmethodsandoverallinstructionalstrategyshouldbeimproved.Finally,weproposedthatstudents’ evaluationoftheirteachers’ knowledgecandevelophighereducationteachers’ professionalgrowthtoimproveengineeringstudents’ mathematicsteachingandlearning.