scholarly journals Learning Styles and Instructional Materials as Correlates of Grade 6 Learners`' Mathematics Performance in Buffalo City, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 242-255
Author(s):  
Kemi Olajumoke Adu ◽  
Ntombozuko Duku

Mathematics is a core subject in South Africa. Studies have shown that the performance of learners on this subject is not encouraging. Many factors have been alluded to by scholars as contributing factors to this poor performance. The gap between theory and practice of mathematics teaching can be bridged by the use of appropriate learning styles, availability, and utilization of instructional. This paper finds out the relationship that exists among learning styles, instructional materials, and mathematics performance of Grade 6. The choice of Grade 6 is important because it is the last grade level of primary school before a learner can enter secondary school level in South Africa. The study adopted a correlational research design of a quantitative approach. Stratified sampling techniques were used to select 1225 learners from Grade 6 schools within Buffalo City Metropolitan Education District. The data revealed among others that in Buffalo City, availability and utilization of instructional materials have no significant relationship with the mathematics performance of selected grade 6 learners (B=.023, t=.804, P≥0.05) while students learning styles (visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic) have a significant relationship with grade 6 learners Mathematics performance (B=-.113, t=-3.886, p<0.05). The study concluded that one of the most fundamental issues to consider in improving Mathematics performance is the understanding of the learners’ learning styles and effective use of appropriate instructional materials for teaching Mathematics.

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Adewale Owodunni Saka ◽  
Peter Aboyami Onanuga

This study examined the teacher effectiveness of the selected STEM subjects’ teachers of physics, chemistry and biology at thesenior secondary school level in Ijebu North local area of Ogun state, Nigeria. All the fifty teachers delivering the selected STEMsubjects were observed using and adapted Teachers’ Effectiveness Observation Guide (r=0.7). The data collected were analysedusing descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that teacher effectiveness of the selected STEM subjects’ teacherswas relevant. The results also indicated that teacher effectiveness of chemistry teachers was the best among the three categoriesof teachers. Furthermore, the findings revealed no significant gender difference in teacher effectiveness of the selected STEMsubjects’ teachers. The study discussed the implications of the findings for sustainable development using science education. Itrecommended among other things that periodic training should be organized for teachers in all areas of teaching dimensions,particularly in the use of activity-based instructional materials for science teaching.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 1075
Author(s):  
Rashideh Zoghi

Many factors including the learners’ individual personality factors and their sociocultural backgrounds, attitudes to learning the new language, intelligence quotient, and personal learning styles and preferences are involved in the process of second/foreign language learning. The present study attempted to examine the relationship between learners’ linguistic intelligence and their visual, audio, and kinaesthetic (VAK) preferences by formulating three null hypotheses. In order to test the hypotheses, a total number of 100 Iranian female high school-level EFL learners in Tabriz were selected through cluster sampling. The participants took a linguistic intelligence test and responded to a VAK preference questionnaire to obtain data about their linguistic intelligence and VAK preferences. The statistical analysis of the obtained data led to the rejection of all three null hypotheses indicating a significant relationship between the learners’ linguistic intelligence and their VAK preferences. The relationship between linguistic intelligence and auditory preferences turned out to be negative and reverse. These results indicated that in order to increase teaching efficiency, the language educators should try to prepare and use instructional materials suiting the learners’ visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic preferences, indicating the need for individualized language instruction. The findings have implications for curriculum developers and syllabus designers as well as educational policy makers.


Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-53
Author(s):  
Lisa Zimmerman ◽  
Sarah Jane Howie

Two cycles of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) were completed in South Africa in 2006 and 2011. In this article, we investigate the qualities of high-performing reading literacy schools for optimal resource management and utilisation strategies for possible application to low-performing schools. We do this against the background of reports on reading resource shortages and inadequacies in the context of reading literacy learning from both of the PIRLS main studies. This is done by comparing six case study schools with varying contexts and performance levels. The findings from a secondary analysis using the PIRLS 2006 data together with six case studies using international reading benchmarks from PIRLS 2006 to depict performance levels, confirmed that learners in low-performing schools from the study had inadequate access to reading instruction resources. This appeared partly attributable to inadequate funding and government provisioning; ineffective resource management at school level and non-resourcefulness of teachers at classroom level exacerbating reading resource inadequacies; as well as ineffective utilisation of materials at these low-performing schools. The resource management and utilisation strategies of high-performing case study schools were found to be potential models for schools with inadequate strategies. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 198 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Might Kojo Abreh ◽  
Kofi Acheaw Owusu ◽  
Francis Kodzo Amedahe

The trends in students’ performance in science and mathematics at secondary school level were examined within a decade-long interval in Ghana. Using West African Examinations Council (WAEC) data from approximately 20% of schools countrywide, it was observed that the results did not provide a definitive pattern. Factors such as teachers’ inability to complete between 50% and 75% of the curricula, insufficient-time to enact and complete the curriculum, lack of enough qualified teachers, and use of poor teaching approaches accounted for the trends. This study in Ghana has implications in teacher recruitment deployment in general as well as duration of secondary education globally to examine their efficacy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serdal Baltaci ◽  
Avni Yildiz ◽  
Bilal Özcakir

<p>Previous studies have shown that students, who have high levels of metacognitive awareness, perform better achievement levels than other students.<strong> </strong>Besides,<strong> </strong>it can be said that learning styles may affect metacognitive awareness of students. In the literature, studies about metacognition focused on problem solving and learners’ mathematical achievement, improvement in metacognition, and supporting some learning environments with metacognition. Therefore, in this study, relationship between metacognitive differences, learning styles, genders and mathematics grades of the fifth grade students are examined. This study was designed as descriptive study and conducted by using relational screening model. The participants consist of 330 fifth grade students from public middle schools. Data collection tools of this study are “Metacognitive Awareness Scale for Children” and “Learning Styles Scale”. The data gathered through these scales were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 21.0. As a result, there is no statistically significant relationship between learning styles and gender. But, there is statistically significant relationship between learning styles-mathematics grades, metacognitive awareness levels<strong> </strong>(MAL)—grade levels in mathematics, MAL-gender and MAL-learning styles. Learning styles may affect individuals’ way of thinking in every moment of the life. Thus, this result has a significant part in education. In fact, parents, teachers and administrators should know metacognitive awareness and learning styles. Thus, knowing these terms can be helpful to understand how the problematic and unsuccessful students show undesirable behaviors since those students’ learning styles and metacognitive awareness levels are not considered.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-104
Author(s):  
Joseph K Waigera ◽  
Maureen Mweru ◽  
Lucy Ngige

The purpose of this research was to establish whether there was a significant relationship between teachers’ attitudes and levels of utilization of instructional materials (IM) in Pre-Primary Schools in Kenya. The study adopted the Ecological Systems Theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner. The study used a cross-sectional survey research design and data were collected through self-administered questionnaires. A sample of 164 teachers comprising of 76.2% females and 23.8% males participated in the study. Results established that 86.4% of the teachers had positive attitudes towards the instructional practice. In terms of utilization of instructional materials, the researchers determined that 62.1% of the respondents achieved high levels while 37.9% attained low levels of utilization of instructional materials across the Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) activity areas. The Chi-Square results revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between teachers’ attitudes and utilization of instructional materials (χ2 = 4.094; d.f.= 2; p = 0.043). Further analysis using the regression test revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between teachers’ positive attitudes and levels of utilization of instructional materials (β =0.516; p = 0.001). These findings established that teachers who had positive attitudes attained higher levels of utilization of instructional materials in their classrooms compared to their counterparts who had negative attitudes. Therefore, it was concluded that teachers’ attitudes were a significant factor in promoting the utilization of instructional materials in ECDE activities. This implies that a positive attitude is an important attribute of a pre-primary school teacher. Therefore, there is a need to inculcate positive attitudes towards the utilization of instructional materials among teachers during pre-service and in-service training sessions to promote the best practices in instruction at the pre-primary school level.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 838-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chux Gervase Iwu ◽  
Henrie Olumide Benedict . ◽  
Robertson Khan Tengeh .

Against the backdrop of the dismal performance of a number of South African high Schools in recent years, this study investigates the relationship between poor performance of learners and teacher motivation in selected high schools in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Adopting an exploratory approach, a random sample of 279 educators was drawn from the database of the poorly performing high schools as provided by the Western Cape Department of Education. Using closed and open-ended questions, a survey questionnaire was utilized to collect data. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 21) was utilised to analyse the data. A number of descriptive statistical tests including Chi Square, and Spearman’s correlation were conducted on the data. The results suggest that highly motivated educators experience job satisfaction; and also perform better than their poorly motivated counterparts. In terms of motivation, the results further suggest that a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic factors tend to exert influence on the educators motivation. For instance, working conditions, job security, and perceived growth opportunities in order of importance were noted to be contributing factors. As far as the obstacles that these educators encounter, lack of resources, work over load and lack of recognition were noted in order of severity. A positive relationship between the factors that influence an educators’ motivation and the level of obstacles encountered was noted. The implication is that, notwithstanding the rankings of the two sets of factors, no factor should be addressed in isolation.


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