This paper presents the findings of a descriptive survey research that investigated what makes students dislike Mathematics and seeks potentially effective Mathematics teaching practices, to boost their interest. The study involved 94 participants, including 60 lower-level secondary school students and 34 Mathematics teachers from 5 schools in Karongi District, Western Province, Rwanda. Both students’ and teachers’ questionnaire responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. We found that what makes students dislike Mathematics is related to how Mathematics is taught. Low scores in tests or exams, teachers’ harshness, and carelessness were reported among the factors demotivating students to like Mathematics. Being able to show the relevance of Mathematics in an everyday situation, teaching students to remember mathematical facts, and showing them lots of worked examples were mentioned by most of the teachers as indicators of effective Mathematics teaching practices. Together with these indicators, preparing the lesson before teaching, providing exercises and homework to students, and making research to update teachers’ teaching skills have been drawn and recommended for teachers as potentially effective teaching practices.
Students' ability to apply mathematical knowledge to various situations has been one of the major concerns in mathematics education research. However, little is known about the assessment strategies that have a substantial contribution to the development of mathematical problemsolving skills in kindergarten children through to upper secondary school students. In this review of existing literature, we discuss the contribution of assessment strategies in the last three decades in strengthening learners' acquisition of mathematical problem-solving skills. Twenty peerreviewed conference papers and journal articles published from 1997 to 2020, downloaded from Google Scholar, Academia, and ERIC databases have been analyzed and discussed. Based on this review, it has been noted that the application of assessment strategies such as Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes taxonomy, Higher-Order Thinking Skills model, performance assessments, authentic assessments, dynamic assessments, and video games-based assessments alongside the learner-centered/active learning methods like problem-based and cooperative learning is bound to strengthen students' mathematical problem-solving skills.
The current work explores the secondary school teachers’ and students’ perception on web-based discussions in teaching and learning and its potentiality to enhance students’ performance in organic chemistry. A mixed approaches typically interviews and achievement tests were applied for collecting qualitative and quantitative data respectively for triangulation purpose. A total of 138 senior five students and 4 teachers were purposively selected from the two secondary schools at Kicukiro District in Kigali city, Rwanda. Discourse and interpretive approaches were used to analyze qualitative data, while t-test was used for analyzing quantitative data obtained from pre- and post-test scores. The results from this study revealed that applying web-based discussions is the teaching method that potentially and effectively enhances students’ performance in organic chemistry with 0.10 learning gains and an effect size of 0.43 (df = 137 and p < .05). In addition, students and teachers have been expressed positive perceptions to the application of web-based discussions in teaching and learning. Therefore, teachers and students are recommended to access a universal chemistry network and conduct web-based discussions for increasing students performance in organic chemistry.
It is natural for students to expect appropriate behaviours from their teachers. Not only students but also every human being appreciates care from surrounding individuals. Within the classroom, students can feel less motivated to take part in the learning of the given course with the teacher who has offensive behaviours. The purpose of this study was to explore students’ reflections about what they consider to be appreciable behaviors of mathematics teachers, for students to be motivated to learn. The study also intended to find out whether there is a link between teachers' behaviours and students' career development. A total number of 53 students comprised of 16 primary pupils, 26 secondary students, and 11 graduate students participated in this study. Purposive, inconvenient, and systematic sampling methods were used to collect data. The findings showed that teachers’ behaviours can influence learners’ interest to learn mathematics. However, the study showed that there is no link between mathematics teachers' behaviours and learners' career development. Therefore, teachers are advised to be approachable, responsive, and behave in a way that motivates students to learn mathematics.
The present study explored the effectiveness of GeoGebra in enhancing students’ active learning, performance and interest to learn mathematics. Much emphasis was put in teaching and learning exponential and logarithmic functions. The general intention was to investigate whether the use of ICT be used to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in Rwandan Secondary Schools. The present study is an experimental research design that employed Grade 11 students of one secondary school within Kayonza district of Rwanda. Thus, sample of 34 Grade 11 students were taught exponential and logarithmic functions with the use of GeoGebra from 19 August 2019 to 30 October 2019. Before the intervention, a short group discussion with Grade 11 students was conducted to see the students’ attitudes about learning mathematics using ICT tools. Besides, a mathematics teacher was asked a challenging topic to teach within conventional classroom. After learning with the use of GeoGebra, an attitudinal survey questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data about the effectiveness of GeoGebra in learning mathematics. Data were analyzed descriptively using Excel 2016. It was found that students acquired more knowledge. The study showed that students can learn independently through interactive dynamic software. The results, therefore, showed that students’ interest to learn mathematics increased. There is a need to strengthen one laptop per student program to enhance students’ independent learning of mathematics
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