Students’ perceptions and their interest in mathematics the case of Senior High Schools in Yendi municipality of Northern Region

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate students’ perception of mathematics and their interest in learning mathematics as well as the sources of their perceptions. The population for the study constitutes final year senior high school students in the Yendi municipality of the Northern Region of Ghana. The study employed a survey design of 100 sampled final year students from the senior high schools in the Yendi Municipality. The study used questionnaire and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) as instruments to collect data. MAT was used to collect quantitative data and the questionnaire was used for both qualitative and quantitative data. The study also used IBM SPSS (version 23) to analyse the quantitative data. The data was expressed in percentages, means and standard deviations obtained. In addition, factor analysis was conducted to determine factors that lead to student’s perception of mathematics. Qualitative data was analysed thematically. The results showed that the students in Yendi municipality had high interest in learning mathematics, and they have some negative perceptions of mathematics. Amongst them include, mathematics is all about calculation, and mathematics activities include procedures that are devoid of real-life discovery and problem solving. The study found that students’ performance in mathematic was affected by their perceptions of the subject. The study suggests that mathematics teachers adopt motivational strategies to increase students’ interest levels in learning mathematics. Educational stakeholders should educate students about the relevance of mathematics in the society for them to develop positive perceptions which in turn can increase their performance in mathematics.