Senior secondary school students' perception of their core mathematiccs classroom environment and attitute towards core mathematics

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to determine how SSS3 students perceive their core mathematics classroom environment and their attitude towards core mathematics as well as investigate possible association(s) between learning environment instrument subscales and attitude. A sample of 342 SSS3 students was used for the study comprising 159 students from single-sex male schools, 117 from single-sex female school and 66 students from co-educational school. These students were selected from four SSSs which were sampled out of the 10 SSSs in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Generally, SSS3 students from the various school-types were found to have a positive perception of their core mathematics learning environment. A one-way multivariate analysis (MANOYA) was used to identify differences in SSS3 students' perception of their core mathematics learning environment among the school types. Two differences were identified among the students from the different school-types namely Teacher Support and Equity and were highest among single-sex male SSS3 students. The results of the study showed that SSS3 students' attitude towards core mathematics was positive irrespective of school-type. Also, no significant differences in attitude towards core mathematics were detected among the students from the different school-types using one-way analysis of variance (ANOYA). From the results obtained, it is recommended among others that core mathematics teachers should capitalize on the differences among the students' perceptions of their learning environment in order to increase their students' positive perception of the core mathematics environment.