Students' perception of teachers' characteristics and their attitude towards mathematics in oron education zone, Nigeria

Abstract

The study sought to find out the relationship between how students perceive their teachers' in respect of knowledge of Mathematics content, communication ability, use of appropriate teaching strategies and teachers' classroom management skills and students' attitude towards mathematics. The population of the study comprised all the second year students in senior secondary schools in Oron Education Zone. The study sample consisted of 640 students selected through cluster and simple random sampling techniques. Two instruments Students' Perception of Teacher Characteristics Questionnaire (SPTCQ) and Students' Attitude towards Mathematics Questionnaire (SATMQ) were developed and administered on the respondents. A trial test of 50 students using split-half reliability test was carried out which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.86 and 0.94 for SPTCQ and SATMQ respectively. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-statistics were used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses respectively. Findings show that the way students' perceive their teachers' in terms of knowledge of mathematics contents, communication ability, teaching methods and classroom management skills has a significant relationship with students' attitude towards mathematics. When the students' perception of their teachers' characteristics is low, students' attitude towards mathematics tends to be negative.