An Investigation of Difficult Topics in the Senior Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum as Perceived by Student Teachers

Akanni Olubukola^1,

¹Department of Educational Foundations (With Educational Psychology), University of Lagos, Akoka, Nigeria

Cite this paper:
Akanni Olubukola. An Investigation of Difficult Topics in the Senior Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum as Perceived by Student Teachers. American Journal of Educational Research. 2015; 3(7):844-848. doi: 10.12691/education-3-7-7

Abstract

This study investigates difficult topics in the senior secondary school Mathematics curriculum as perceived by student teachers. The study also investigated the influence of teachers teaching experience and gender differences on their perception of Mathematics topics. The participants consisted of 30 male and 30 female students drawn from two tertiary institutions in Lagos state through stratified random sampling procedure. The relevant data were generated using Mathematics Topic Difficulty Assessment Questionnaire (MTDAQ). The instrument has a reliability of 0.87 when tested during the pilot study. Five hypotheses were formulated and tested all at 0.05 level of significance. Results obtained indicated that there exist a significant difference of teachers teaching experience and there were no significant gender differences on their perception of Mathematics topics. Based on the findings of this study, some conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made.

Keywords:
difficult topics student teachers gender

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