The Influence of the use of Instructional Resources in the Teaching of Mathematics on Students' Performance in Mathematics in Public English Speaking Secondary Schools

It has been suggested that teachers' instructional practices mediate the relationship between teacher background variables and student learning (Fennema&Franke, 1992; Mewborn & Cross, 2007). One instructional practice that has been supported as a way to help build students' mathematical understanding is the use of instructional resources (e.g., Hiebertet al., 1997). In this dissertation, it is investigated the influence of the use of instructional resources on the teaching of mathematics as a mediator of the relationship between teacher variables and students' mathematics learning. A survey design employing a mixed-method approach, quantitative and qualitative, was used. In this research, 408 students sampled from both urban and rural areas in the six divisions that make up the South West region of Cameroon, 8 focus group discussions were organized and 12 observations were done. Instruments for data collection were a semi-structured questionnaire, a focus group discussion guide and an observational guide. As concerns questionnaire and observation, the data for the closed ended questions were described using frequency, proportion and Multiple-Responses-Analysis to aggregate score within conceptual components while hypotheses were tested using logistic regression model with the statistical package of social science version 21.0.(SPSS). Qualitative data were analysed following the thematic approach. Though the study revealed that the performance of students in mathematics was generally good 80.6% (329), the contribution of instructional resources was perceived to be weak and statistically non-significant. From both students and observation perspectives, print media were not effectively used, as only 22.9% weight from the observation and 19.4% (79) of students agreed that they were used to a high extent. Only 15.7% (64) of the students acknowledged that they were effectively available. In the same line, 68.9% (281) students were of the opinion that mathematic laboratories were not used at all while 73.5% (300) denounced the fact that computer laboratories were not used at all. Though students for the majority agreed that libraries equipped with books are available in schools for the teaching of mathematics 65.2% (266), only 15.2% (62) stated that they were effectively used for the teaching of mathematics. it was perceived that projected audio-visual instructional resources in the teaching of mathematics were not at all used, as generally perceived by the students 82.4% (336). It was then recommended that teachers and students should be drilled on the importance and usage of instructional resources. Those instructional resources should be made available to make the teaching of mathematics more practical and take advantage from the assets offered by ICTs, notably computer-based simulations and modeling. Besong Francis Mbeng"The Influence of the use of Instructional Resources in the Teaching of Mathematics on Students' Performance in Mathematics in Public English Speaking Secondary Schools" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-4 , June 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd14570.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/education/14570/the-influence-of-the-use-of-instructional-resources-in-the-teaching-of-mathematics-on-students-performance-in-mathematics-in-public-english-speaking-secondary-schools/besong-francis-mbeng