Influence of Students’ Perception of Mathematics on Learning Behaviour in Senior Secondary Schools in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, Rivers State

Abstract

This study employed a descriptive survey research design to examine the influence of students’ perception of mathematics on their learning behavior towards the subject in public senior secondary schools in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. Four research questions guided the study. The population of this study comprises of all 34 087 students offering mathematics in public senior secondary schools in the Local Government Area in the 2020/2021 academic session. The Taro Yamane formula was used to obtain the sample size of 395 students for the study. The SS2 class was purposively selected for the study. Simple random sampling technique was used to sample four public senior secondary schools out of the 23 in the area, and for the selection of the 395 students for the study. A researcher constructed instruments titled "Students' Perception of Mathematics Questionnaire" was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.72 obtained to establish its reliability. The data collected were analyzed using percentage, Mean and Standard Deviation. The findings revealed that the students in have a very poor perception of mathematics and poor attitude towards mathematics learning and that students’ negative perception of Mathematics grossly influenced their behavior towards mathematics learning. The study also showed amongst others, that the student self-concept has a very little influence on their learning behavior. This study therefore recommended that the government should provide a mathematics counselling unit for public secondary schools and that school management should put effort in counselling the students towards developing positive attitude and perception towards mathematics learning so as improve positive attitude towards the subject and performance.