TITLE:
Analyses of the Responses of Staff and Students on Mathematics Mentoring in Isuikwuato Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Silas A. Ihedioha
KEYWORDS:
Exploration, Impact, Mentoring, Declarative Knowledge, Conceptual Knowledge, Proportional/Spatial Knowledge
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.12,
December
14,
2015
ABSTRACT: The search for what will motivate the students to have a better attitude
towards learning Mathematics led us to choosing mentoring. Despite the
generally accepted belief that only positive effects can result from the implementation
of planned mentoring programs, little research has been conducted evaluating mentoring
programs, hence this effort to assess the schools’ Mathematics Mentoring
exercise in Algebra by sounding the opinions of both staff and students. The
present study examines the opinions of staff and students on the change of
attitude of students in Isuikwuato Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria.
Sixteen (16—10 male and 6 female) teachers and sixty-six students (66—36 male
and 30 female) completed the questionnaires. They were asked to indicate their
opinion on how the mentoring exercise has imparted on the students’ performance
in Algebra. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by three experts in
the field of educational Psychology. The percentage analyses show that majority
of the teachers and students agree that the schools’ mentoring program has made
positive impact. The chi-square analyses indicate no significant difference
between male and female teachers’ and students’ opinions on Declarative, Conceptual and Proportional/Spatial Knowledge of the students. Also, fourteen students (six female students, and eight
male students) of the very weak group took both the pre-test and post-test. A
t-test was conducted and both groups (the male students and the female
students) had significance levels less than 0.05, so there was a statistically
significant difference in the scores from the pre-test to the post-test,
showing that Mathematics mentoring exercise in Algebra imparted positively on
the student. Proponents of mentoring programs hypothesize that mentoring
programs could be part of the answer to the problems children/students;
however, little research has been conducted evaluating the effectiveness of mentoring
programs. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers should go extra mile in
doing all they can towards students academic development.