Abstract
This study is on the difficulties encountered by students in solving algebraic problem in senior secondary school. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected secondary schools in surulere, Lagos state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made principals, vice principals adm, senior staff and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the study
Education is seen as the best means for developing the potentialities of young and adult learners so that they can in turn make meaningful contribution to the development of the society. Education in Nigeria is an instrument “par excellence” for effecting national development (National policy on Education, 2004). It is generally recognized that no society or nation can make only significant progress without relevant education. According to Ivowi (2003), national development can only occur if there is a crop of human resources with sufficient knowledge and skills to interact with ideas and materials in order to produce the required result. The development of an individual started from his early childhood particularly at primary school (Owolabi, 1991). Mathematics can be defined in various ways but according to the Oxford dictionary (1982) it is the “science of numbers”. Mathematics is also referred to as the acquisition of the ability by an individual to apply deductive and inductive, reasoning to real life situation. Abiodun (1989) states that Mathematics is the core of all educational objective so to indulge people into functioning effectively and efficiently especially in an age of modern technology. It requires the person studying it to acquire the in depth knowledge of mathematics so that he or she can understand the theories of the subject. Ames(1992) said that Mathematics enhances problem solving skills and analysis skills of students. It enables students to apply their skills to both familiar and unfamiliar situations. Dale (2008) describes Mathematics as a base for all technologies. All innovations are by product of science and mathematics. It is applied in medicine, engineering, natural science, social science, physical science, technology, business and commerce. It is necessary in learning computer science, computers are to be found in banks, hospitals, universities etc. they are used by accountants, doctors, teachers, research scientists, students and many others, all these becomes a reality as a result of the importance of mathematics in all aspects of human life. Butler (1960) describes mathematics as the bedrock of all human knowledge. This is because mathematics has been in the forefront of human endeavours to understand his environment and be able to aggregate all factors in it, to make life comfortable for him. Hence mathematics embraces many branches of science and highly required in many spheres of life regardless of the manner of level of application. Kenku (1988) defines mathematics as the language of science. He further explains that mathematics could be better defined as the study of numbers, shapes, physical systems and their relationship. Mathematics plays a major part in the human daily lives, it started with counting, by the primitive man, this led to computation argument and logical thinking followed. It is common knowledge that mathematics is allocated the greatest number of period in the secondary school’s timetable, however students perform least in it. Don Small (2002) Identified high school preparation, placement, syllabus, content, face, attitude, lack of persistence, determination and pedagogy etc as the main factors that contribute to poor performance of student in mathematics.
Many children growing into the adulthood have developed negative attitude towards algebra (Brekke, 2001) students easily understand algebra and it is a source of consideration, confusion and negative attitudes among students. According to Encarta premium (2006) He defined algebra as a branch of mathematics in which symbols (usually letters) represents unknown numbers in mathematical equations algebra allows the basic operations of arithmetic’s, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to be performed without using specific numbers. Mac Gregor (2004) listed the reasons why students should be helped to easily understand algebra and solve problems in it. Amongst which are:
First, algebra is a vital part of the general knowledge of numbers in a democratic society secondly, it is pre-requisite for further study of mathematics, thirdly it is a crucial component of mathematical literacy, fourthly it is an efficient way of solving certain types of problems, finally, it promotes generalizations, organized thinking and deductive reasoning which are keys to intellectual activities.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE STUDY
Mathematics in Nigeria education is a core and compulsory subject, an important aspect of which is algebra. Although teachers often teach students this aspect of mathematics, researchers have shown that there is a low output in terms of student’s performance in algebra (Ignacio, 2006). This indicates that many students at SSS t level do not have a good grasp of the algebraic aspects of mathematics.
According to Edgeton (2000), the teaching of algebra is not allowed to grow out of direct experience and most algebraic ideas are simply handed over by the teacher than helping students to discover them.
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