Investigating the Effects of Using a Variety of Teaching Methods in Teaching and Learning of Secondary School Mathematics

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject Didactics - Mathematics, , language: English, abstract: This paper aims at finding out the effects of using a variety of teaching methods in teaching and learning of Mathematics in secondary schools. The main objective of the research paper will be to investigate the effects of using a variety of teaching methods in the teaching and learning of secondary school Mathematics. Therefore data were collected by questionnaires and interviews with 30 mathematics teachers and 20 students from Msalura cluster in Salima district.

Mathematics has always been given special attention in school as the nature of the subject is related to many other fields and disciplines. Moreover, students¿ mathematics achievement has often been the focus and is seen as a critical global issue in many countries. Besides being perceived as a tough subject, problems in mathematics learning have also been related to the lack of regulation skills among students in learning mathematics. Self-regulation is a broad construct which covers before, during and after phases learning. The rapid changes of the education system and delivery methods give a huge impact to students.This situation requires students to learn effectively and in a more self-directed manner.

To achieve this, teachers are encouraged to use a variety of teaching methods when teaching mathematics. This leads to student motivation which is a very important element in the learning process as it is an inducer and propeller for one to do a task successfully. Therefore, motivation is essential for an individual to successfully face challenges in academic setting. Moreover, motivation will be used by students as the attribution or determinant to their behaviour in learning and performance. Behaviours that are related to academic motivation such as the desire to do difficult tasks and stay longer in difficult situations will be the determinant for students¿ ability in facing daily school life challenges. It has been observed that there is still poor performance in mathematics despite the use of a variety of methods by teachers. This research intends to investigate the effects of using a variety of teaching methods in teaching and learning of secondary school mathematics.