Teacher Instructional Methods and Student Attitudes towards Mathematics

This study examined the effect of behavioral objective-based (BOBIS) and study question-based (SQBIS) instructional strategies on students’ attitude towards Senior Secondary Mathematics. The three hypotheses for the study were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The issue of attitudinal changes of student in mathematics classroom is an evergreen topic which cannot be wished away. It is therefore important to search for more and simple methods/ways by which teachers could continually inspire positive attitude in mathematics classroom. The research adopted a pre-test, post-test, control group quasi experimental design. There were three treatment groups which are - two experimental groups (behavioral objective-based (group1, N=117) and study question-based (group II, N=95) instructional strategies) and a control group (group III, N=100). A total of 312 students were involved in the study. The classrooms were randomly selected in each school and all the students in the selected classroom constitute the sample (intact class). Students’ Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) has a reliability coefficient of r = 0.81. Findings revealed a significant effect of treatments (BOBIS & SQBIS) on students’ attitude towards Mathematics. The result was (F (2,311) = 72.95, P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in attitude between behavioural objective-based instructional strategy group and the control group with the BOBIS group having far better attitude to mathematics than the control group. Similarly, significant difference was found between the attitude of SQBIS group and the control group but no significant difference in attitude was found between BOBIS group and SQBIS group. Behavioral objective-based and Study-question-based groups were found to have similar attitude towards. In other words, there was significant differences between the attitudes of subjects exposed to behavioural objectives and control group and between those exposed to study question and the control group and no significant difference in attitude between the behavioural objective and study question groups. Both experimental groups (BOBIS and SQBIS) proved to be superior to the control group. Based on the findings, behavioral objective-based and study question-based instructional strategies were found to be viable instructional strategies that could promote positive attitude towards mathematics. The implication of the result is that teachers’ method of instruction in classroom is important in changing students’ attitude and habits towards mathematics.