INFLUENCE OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ MATHEMATICS PERFORMANCE IN KAFANCHAN INSPECTORATE DIVISION

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of learning environment in terms of class size, teachers‟ use of instructional materials, teachers‟ methods of teaching as well as school location (urban and rural) on senior secondary school students‟ performance in mathematics. The study used ex post facto research design. Four research questions guided the study and four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The stratified random sampling procedure was used to draw 14 secondary schools out of 32 senior secondary schools. Also, the simple random sampling procedure was used to draw the mathematics mock results of 800 SSIII students from these sampled schools, out of 1,432 students‟. Two instruments – Mathematics learning environment questionnaire (MALEQ) and Mathematics learning environment observation schedule (MALEOS) were used for data collection. The cronbach‟s coefficient alpha reliability of the MALEQ and MALEOS were 0.63 and 0.65 respectively. Simple percentages, mean and chi-square test of independence at 5% significant level were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that: There is a significant negative influence of class size on senior secondary school students‟ performance in mathematics (p < 0.05); There is a significant positive influence of teachers‟ use of instructional materials on senior secondary school students‟ performance in mathematics (p<0.05); There is a significant positive influence of teachers‟ methods of teaching on senior secondary school students‟ performance in mathematics (p<0.05); There is a significant influence of school location on senior secondary school students‟ performance in mathematics (p<0.05) in favour of the urban students. And based on these findings the following recommendations were made: Education policy makers should formulate policies that will restrict class size to less than 35 students, otherwise more schools and classes should be built, additional mathematics teachers employed and teachers trained on how to handle large classes; the acquisition and utilization of instructional materials in teaching mathematics concepts should be a paramount necessity by mathematics teachers, governments, school administrators and all stakeholders in education; the use of multiple methods of teaching such that are suitable for each concept and circumstance of the class is recommended for mathematics teachers; curriculum planers should in their remark on each topic indicate the most suitable methods and instructional materials to be used; there should be equity and fairness in the supervision as well as the distribution of learning facilities, instructional materials and professional mathematics teachers in urban and rural areas so as to reduce the gap between urban and rural students.