DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF AN INSTRUMENT FOR ASSESSING JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument for assessing junior secondary school Mathematics classroom environment as it affects teaching and learning of Mathematics in Enugu State. Instrumentation research design was adopted for the study. The sample of the study consisted of 1710 students drawn from the population of 43,540 Junior Secondary1, 2 and 3 students for 2010/2011 academic session in the 75 public junior secondary schools in Enugu State. The instrument used for data collection was the Mathematics Classroom Environment Assessment Scale (MCEAS) developed and validated by the researcher. The instrument covered nine dimensions as follows: Involvement, Affiliation, Teacher Support, Task- Orientation, Cooperation, Competition, Order and organization, Teacher Control and innovation. The instrument has two sections: students’ actual and students’ preferred forms. These items will enable students to provide information about the learning environment that is present in their classroom (the actual environment) as well as information about the learning environment that they would like to be present (preferred environment). Three research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The statistical techniques used in analyzing the data were factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha and analysis of variance. A test of reliability showed that the instrument was reliable at 0.82 and 0. 97. This result made the researcher to recommend that the instrument MCEAS be used in junior secondary schools in Enugu State to ascertain effective Mathematics classroom learning environment. The findings showed that students preferred more favorable Mathematics classroom environment than was perceived as being actually present.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Mathematics plays a great role in the development of science and technology in Nigeria and beyond. It has been conceptualized as a culture which affords man the opportunity to know, access things and objects within his immediate and remote environment (Harbor-Peters, 2000). It forms the basic ingredients to the understanding of science and technology (Ibraheem &
Ogunnusi, 2001). Different schools of thought have different definitions of
Mathematics such as Peirce (1881) defined Mathematics as “the science that draws necessary conclusions”. Russell (1903) defined Mathematics “as symbolic logic”. Curry (1951) defined mathematics simply as “the science of formal system”. Maliki, Mgban and Julie (2009), see Mathematics as a subject that affects all aspects of human life at different degrees. The social, economic, political, geographical, scientific and technological aspects of man are centered on numbers. The importance of Mathematics does not only lie in its contributions to scientific and technological development but also in its utility in day-to-day interactions at the market places, transportations, business of all sorts by both literate and illiterate members of the society.