A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITED TO NATIONAL TEACHER’S
INSTITUTE, KADUNA
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
AWARD OF A POST GRADUKATE DIPLOMA (PGD) IN EDUCATION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND TO
THE STUDY:
Mathematics can be defined as the
science of number and space and the language of science and technology. It is
an essential requirement by every field of intellectual Endeavour and human
development to cope with the challenges of life. Mathematics can also be defined as the
queen
and servant of all the school subjects since it cut across the school curricula.
It is equally seen as the language used to describe the problems arising in
technology. It relates other school
subjects in areas like number and numeration, variations, graphs, fractions,
solution of equation, and areas and volumes.
Brief history of the formal teaching of
mathematics in Nigeria Started with Arithmetics a component of mathematics at
the primary and postprimary schools Fajemidagba (1999), according to him,
Arithmetics was compulsory for every primary school pupils and must be passed
before a pupil could obtain the “Primary
school leaving certificate,” the same condition holds for the Teacher Training
Colleges either grade II or III. After
the launching of the Sputnik, the first earth Satellite in space in November
1957 by the Russians, which according to Griffiths and Howson (1974) has an
enormous effects on American Complacency about superiority in engineering
capability over that of Russians. The
result of the doubt were series of hot debates and arguments on the suitability
or otherwise of the school mathematics and curricula. These occurrences were called ‘issues and
forces’: behind the reformation of school mathematics Curricula Contents, which
also affect various reforms in school Mathematics programme in Nigeria. The
reformation of mathematics curricula has continued to evolve considering its enormous
importance to the development of the world. Mathematics still remains one of the
core and compulsory subjects for the Nigerian students at both primary and post
primary schools. Recently, mathematics has become a determining factor to gaining
admission into most Nigerian universities as it must be passed up to credit
level before one gains admission.
In spite of its importance to the students’
advancement in academics, many students dread mathematics. Given the right to
chose, many secondary school students would outrightly avoid mathematics, this
is because many of them have developed some
elements of fears about the subject, may be, as a result of long time negative
information they get every year about the poor and low level performance in
WAEC and NECO examinations in Mathematics or other factors this research work
sets out to unravel. According to
Ajagun (2000) the performance of students in both junior and senior secondary science
in Nigeria has remained an issue of concern to all stakeholders.
Dwelling more on the fear of mathematics
by the secondary school students, psychologytoday.com defines fear as a vital response to physical and emotional
danger if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t
protect ourselves from the legitimate
threats. Toscany Academy (2012) This quote
can be translated in the context of threat posed by mathematics to the
candidates preparing for the examination.
Since most of these students have lost hope and psychologically defeated due to fear, this affect their level
of interest and passion in the subject and the greater percentage of students
opt for examination malpractices and resort to external help. We all know that fear is learnt, “a burnt
child dreads fire” is a saying we often use showing that a child learns from
his/her experiences. Fear is also contagious as children learn fear
from observing other show fears.
Children also learn fear from their contemporaries.
Phobia in the other hand is a clinical
or pathologically intense fear often irrational leading to a compulsive need to
avoid a thing or event.
(NTI PDE
102:187) the term “Phobia” in an everyday life can be used to refer to fears
which have rational origin. When fear reaches an extreme pitch, it becomes a
phobia. The implication of the above in a child is,
if failure is greeted with scolding and corporal punishment with little attention to
motivation, clarity and
relevance, student will dislike to learn a particular subject. When experience of learning becomes so
unpleasant, it creates the emotions of fear and boredom. In such situation, even the brightest pupils will fail to
profit from learning (NTI, PDE 102)
1.2 STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
The lackadaisical attitude of the students
towards mathematics in our secondary school has reached such an extreme
pitch, that every lover of education, growth and development of Nigeria cannot
afford to keep mute on the happenings in the mathematics education. Ajagun (2000) decried “the performance of students in both junior and
senior secondary science has remained an issue of concern to all the
stakeholders. The overwhelming personal observation on the types of students found in science classes of our–today-
secondary schools in Nigeria can be
better imagined than to engage as ones students. In the past, we used to have brilliant students in sciences, if that
is true, it implies that
something has gone wrong somewhere,
either that our students do not
work hard again, or they have been overtaken by fear of some
of these
subjects. Fear as we all know is learnt
and it is contagious and
dangerous. It may have struck our students into avoidance of mathematic.
Phobia has been defined as a clinical or
pathologically intense fear often irrational leading to a compulsive need to avoid
an event or thing. Personal observation has also revealed that many a
student would desert or dodge
mathematics class just before the arrival
of the teacher and during the examination he/she struggles
to pass at all cost. It is
against these ugly trend and
background that the researcher sets out to investigate
some of the causes and effects
of phobia in mathematics among secondary school students
in Abakaliki Local Government
Area with a view to allaying the fear in our students and to
better position them with right
disposition for active learning
of mathematics.
1.3 PURPOSE OF
THE STUDY
The general purpose of this study is to
investigate the possible causes and effects of students’ phobia in mathematics
as regards to implications and threats posed to the development of our
country Nigeria and the developments of science and technology.
The specific purpose of this study is
derived from the general purpose stated
above, these include the following:
i.
To x-ray the causes of phobia in
mathematics amongst the secondary school students in Abakaliki Local
Government Area
ii.
To
investigate the effects of this phobia in
mathematics on the students
performance in both internal and external examination
iii.
To
find out how teaching techniques and instructional materials would improve the
lukewarm attitudes of students towards mathematics.
iv.
To
access the impact of phobia in
mathematics to the development of science and technology Nigeria
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This
study is of immense significant as the findings would use in the following
ways:
i.
To help students overcome the unnecessary that
has hampered from effective learning of mathematics in our secondary schools.
ii.
To
help the students improve on their performances in mathematics and other science subjects
iii.
The
prevalent cases of examination
malpractices amongst the secondary school students especial in mathematics would be reduced to the
barest minimal
iv.
It
will equally help to improve on the number of candidates wishing to make
career in mathematics in our tertiary
institutions
v.
The
Nigerian government stands to benefit
from this research work in the aspect of positioning the country as a technological and
industrialized nation since the bedrock of science and technology is mathematics.
Again the guest for self –reliance and self –employment to the
teeming youths will find solutions in this research work.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE
STUDY
This research project will only explore on
the causes and effects of phobia in mathematics amongst the secondary school students
in Abakaliki Local Government Area only. Nevertheless, it would have been ideal
enough to carryout this research in the
whole of Ebonyi State and Nigeria at large so as to reach an irrevocable
conclusion on the matter, but for time and financial constraints. The
questionnaire and interview will
be structured to cover only ten
secondary schools in Abakaliki
Local Government Area and the content would span on the causes of phobia in
mathematics, the consequences of phobia
in the students performance in
both internal and external examinations.
It will equally harness the best teaching techniques and instructional
materials for the effective learning
and lesson delivery. The importance of mathematics to the national development will be brought to bare.
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In the course of carrying out this
project work, the following questions have been formulated to provide the
needed information to achieve the set
objectives of this study; namely
1.
What
are the cases of phobia in mathematics among
the students of secondary schools, in Abakaliki?
2.
What
effects do you think phobia in mathematics has in the performance of students
in both internal and external examinations?
3.
What impact has phobia in mathematics on the national
development?