Do students like us because we teach well? The popularity of high school mathematics teachers

Abstract

Mathematics is a highly esteemed discipline in high schools in Ghana; hence, mathematics teachers enjoy exceptionally high prestige, which by default makes them popular. However, not all mathematics teachers are popular, perhaps because such teachers do not provide quality mathematics instruction. Although the speculation that teaching quality can prompt teacher popularity, just as teachers’ popularity may be a candidate for teaching quality abounds, research studies that seek to relate mathematics teachers’ popularity to the quality of their instruction are scarce. Using closed and open-ended questionnaires, data on teacher popularity and instructional quality from 774 high school students was used to explore the predictability of teacher popularity from the quality of their mathematics instruction. The study found high school mathematics teachers to be generally popular and provided quality mathematics instruction. Although teacher popularity was predicted by quality instruction, teachers’ instructional practices of fostering mathematics explanation and providing feedback were not significant predictors of teachers’ popularity. Nevertheless, teachers’ adaptive support was the major reason students liked their mathematics teachers. This study also showed that the levels of popularity showed how different high school math teachers did different things to improve the quality of their lessons.