Opportunity to learn first year mathematics in teacher training colleges in Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out students which of the 18 topics in the first year teacher training mathematics syllabus were not taught by the end of the year and which ones were found difficult. Six hundred and ninety-five second year pre-service teachers, made up of 186 females and 506 males, from 18 teacher-training colleges participated in the study. The study was a crosssectional survey and data was collected using a questionnaire. An alpha level of 0.05 was used for all statistical tests. The results showed that two topics, measures of central tendency and conditional probability were not taught. It was found that ten of the eighteen topics were found by the students to be difficult to understand. Further results showed that the Arts students found seven topics more difficult than the Science students and female students also found ten topics more difficult than the males. It is recommended that the teacher training college tutors make efforts to complete the PS1 syllabus. Attempts should be made to integrate the discovery approach into teaching and learning difficult mathematics topics. It is further recommended that more tutorials, extra classes and additional assignments should be given to the Arts and female students.

African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences Vol. 2(2) 2004: 65-78