Teacher Qualifications, Students’ Multi-Variant and Teaching Strategies Variables as Determinants of Mathematics Students’ Cognitive Achievement

Abstract

The study investigated the extent to which some multi-variant variables such as self-efficacy, mathematics anxiety, students’ perception, self-concept, and teaching techniques determined the cognitive achievement of senior secondary school mathematics students. A non-randomized pre-test. a post-test control group with a 3x3x2x2 factorial arrangement on the quasi-experiential design was adopted. The participants for the study involved 140 senior secondary two mathematics students and a multistage sampling technique was adopted. Two researcher-made instruments were used for data collection. These were the Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) and School Multivariant Variable Questionnaire (SMVQ). MAT consists of 50 multiple-choice items while SMVQ was divided into four sections namely self-efficacy, mathematics anxiety scale, self-concept perceptions, and student’s ability in mathematics. The internal consistencies of 0.88, 0.86, 0.92, 0.85, and 0.88 respectively were achieved using the Kuder-Richardson formula 21, and Cronbach Alpha was used to gather data for the study. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyse the data collected. The results revealed that teaching, teaching technique with an index of the relationship of 0.44 (0.52) has the most facilitating effect in the enhancement of students’ cognitive achievement in the concept of Algebra in mathematics. This is seconded by teachers’ qualification with an index of the relationship of 0.14 (0.40²), while the multi-variant variable with an index of the relationship of 0.0014 (0.04²) has the least facilitative effects. The result also indicated that there is no significant interaction effect of teaching strategies (discussion and guided discovery) are equally good for the students.