1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Teacher’s Qualification is one of a number of academic and professional degrees that enables a person to become a registered teacher in primary or secondary school such qualifications includes but are not limited to the post graduate Diploma in education (RGDE) and the Bachelors of Education.
Teacher; Experience: usually, experience is discussed in terms of its relationship to performance-whether more experienced teacher produce larger student test score gains than less- experienced teachers. Experience is only weekly related to performance and therefore shouldn’t be used in determining salary and other conditions of work. It is unusual to hear people saying that the experience doesn’t matter at all.
Teachers Gender: for all the differences between the series, here’s one that (might stir) up debate in the teachers’ longer boys learn more from men and girl learn more from women.
That’s the upshot of a provocative study by (Thoma Dee) an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore college and visiting scholars at Stanford university. His study was to appear Monday in education next, Dee’s research faces a fight for acceptance. Some leading education advocates dispute his conclusions and the way in which he reached them, but Dee says his research supports his point, that genders matter when it comes to learning specifically as he describes it, having a teacher of the opposite sex hurts a students’ academic progress, primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Children generally attend primary school from around the age of four or five until the age of eleven or twelve. In some places, primary schooling has historically further been divided between Lower primary school(LP) and higher primary school (HP) schools.
Mathematics (from Greek mathema,” knowledge, study and learning”) is the abstract study of topics.
Mathematics resolves the truth of falsity of conjunctures of mathematical proof. The research required to solve mathematical problems can be take years or even centuries of sustained inquiry.
Through the use of abstraction and logical reasoning, mathematics developed from counting calculation, measurement and the systematic study of the shapes and motion of physical objects, practical mathematics has been a human activity ad for back as written records exist.
Friedrich (1977-1855) referred to mathematics as ” the Queen of the sciences, Benjamin Pierre(1809-1880) called mathematics ” the science that draws necessary conclusions. Einstein (1879-1955) stated that “as far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Mathematics is used throughout the word as an essential too in many Fields, including natural science, engineering, medicine and the social science.
Mathematics is then one of the six course subjects which needs to be used, for this purpose a greater attention has to be given to its teaching.
My observation reveal that students performance in private and public schools differs, one wonders why this should be so. It is then of importance in the public and private school students in mathematics at the primary school level.
various results emphasized that the qualification of a teacher possesses, the year of experience and even the sex of the teacher and publics have one effect or the other on the outcome of mathematics instructions.
In this research work, therefore the writer wants to undergo a study on the effect of teacher’s qualification, experience and gender on the primary school pupils performance in mathematics.
Mathematics is one of the key subjects in both the primary and secondary school education system in Nigeria. Teaching of mathematics very important to all human existence. Mathematics is all about finding solutions to problems; all decisions taken are based on such questions as what and how these questions is best answer by converting very statement of mathematical statement before solution in sought.
The depth of mathematical knowledge, an individual has dictated the level of accuracy of his/her decision. This implies the fact that before an individual can function well in the society he/she must posse’s mathematicstively good knowledge of mathematics, especially in this era of technological age. The technological development is highly rooted in the study of mathematics.
Okebukola(1992) opined that mathematics is referred to as central intellectual discipline of the technological societies.
Among (1990) argued that mathematics is not only the language of science, but essential nutrient for thought logical reasoning and progress.
Mathematics liberates the mind and also gives individuals an assessment of the intellectual abilities by pointing towards direction of improvement. He concluded by saying that mathematics is the a basis of all sciences and technology and therefore the of all human endeavors, application of mathematics cut across all areas of human knowledge. Despite these wide applicability and importance of mathematics many pupils and students still not finding there feet in the subject. Therefore, mathematics is the father of all subjects.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
Mathematics to some people is a way of making a living, a game to be played and enjoyed. But a helpful tools in conducting one’s life.
This study aims at investigating the effect of teacher’s qualification, experience and gender on the primary school pupil’s performance in mathematics has continued to be a major cause for concern include: the unique position which mathematics occupies in science and technology and national development.
The new educational system which emphasizes science education, given the level of educational development in Nigeria and the reason outlined above, the question is “why do students continue to perform poorly in mathematics in our school”?
Bakare(1976) in an earlier report observed that poor achievement in mathematics emanated from intellectual and non- intellectual factor tend to suggest home and neighborhood influenced, teachers knowledge, attitude and learning style as having significant effect in student’s achieve in science.
The gender issues in teaching and learning of mathematics in primary schools is a serious matter. The fact remains that in Africa, tradition and customs have been a major factors in molding African child. Nigeria is not an essential exception of this. And in most cases these factors accounted for the low in taking female teachers in schools.
The study also wishes to investigate what impacts do teacher’s qualification and experience have on the performance of primary schools pupils in mathematics.
1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY
Generally, student’s academics performance can either be satisfactory or otherwise but it is the failure of the students that bothered the researcher. This among other reasons is the purpose for which this study is initiated. It aim at investigating the effect of teachers’ qualification, experience and gender on the performance of primary school pupils.
Efforts are made to look into the various qualification, experiences of teachers and various performances of both males and female teachers.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION
In this write-up, effort will be made to test the following Question:
Is there difference in the performance of pupils in mathematics when taught by teachers of different sex?
Is there difference in the performance of pupils in mathematics when taught by qualified teachers?
Is there difference in the performance of pupils in mathematics handled by experienced teachers and inexperienced teachers?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
In these write-ups, effort will be made to test the following hypothesis:
There is no significant difference in the performance of pupils in mathematics when taught by teachers of different sex.
There is no significant difference in the performance of pupils in mathematics when taught by qualified teachers.
There is no significant difference in the performance of pupils in mathematics handled by experienced teachers and inexperienced teachers.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
This study is concerned mainly to contribute to the general knowledge and literature on the best approach to be used in solving problem of teacher’s qualification- experience and gender on the performance of primary school pupils in mathematics.
The study would serve as a lesson to the teachers and pupils in training to known how to handle the students toward the understanding of the nature of mathematics.
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
This study will be limited to only teachers and pupils in five primary school in Oriire local government area (ikoyi-ile).
The selected schools are:
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
TEACHER: A person who teach in a school
QUALIFICATION: A qualify that makes someone suitable for a job or activity. This is what makes teachers to become competent.
EXPERIENCE: Knowledge or skill gained over time.
GENDER: The state of being male or female ( with reference to social or cultural difference)
PERFORMANCE: This is the action of performing
MATHEMATICS: This is a subject, the branch of science concerned with number quantity and space. The importance of mathematics is most fields of human endeavor cannot be underestimated. It is usefulness in science, mathematical and technology activities as well as commerce, economics, education and even humanities is almost at par with the importance of education as a whole.