Path analytical study of teachers' characteristics, students' attitude and instructional facilities on students' performance in mathematics

Abstract

The study determined the effect of teachers' characteristics like qualification, knowledge of subject matter, experience, workload, effectiveness, students' attitude and instructional facilities caused variation in students' performance in Mathematics. Study adopted an expost-facto design covering the colleges of education in Nigeria. Samples to the study consisted of 165 NCE III students of Mathematics and 30 Mathematics lecturers from the 6 colleges of education in the southwestern part of Nigeria. Six instruments were developed, validated and used to collect data: context questionnaire, input questionnaire, process questionnaire, product questionnaire, inventory of Mathematics resources in the colleges and inventory of resources in the Mathematics laboratory studio. Data were analyzed through the mean, standard deviation and path analysis. The findings showed that there was dismal performance of students in Mathematics with mean scores of 44.4% and standard deviation of 2.9. Twenty one significant pathways (seven direct and fourteen indirect = 82.2%) through which the identified variables caused variation in students' performance in Mathematics. The implication of the finding was that persistent students' dismal performance in Mathematics was due to accumulated problems in their preparation which failed to adhere strict to the conditions of programme accreditation.

African Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Sport Facilitation Vol. 6 2004: 45-52