ICT skills activation for secondary school students and its implication on mathematics proficiency

Abstract

The study investigated an assessment of ICT skills needed for mathematical proficiency among secondary school students. Mathematics proficiency made up of procedural fluency (PF), conceptual understanding (CU), strategic competence (SC), adaptive reasoning (AR) and productive disposition (PD) were examined in the study. The research design employed was descriptive survey, as it enables the researcher describe the existing situation regarding participants’ opinion towards the integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) into teaching and learning of mathematics. The population of this study consists of mathematics teachers and students of senior secondary schools in Ado-Ekiti Local Government of Ekiti State. The sample for the study consists of 1000 students selected from 189 public and private secondary schools in Ado-Ekiti. The instrument used in carrying out this research was a questionnaire on the level of students’ use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and mathematics proficiency. Face and content validity of the instrument was ascertained while the reliability of the instrument was ensured by administering it on 20 students outside the sample used in this study. The Pearson's Product Moment Correlation analysis was used which yielded a reliability co-efficient of 0.80. Data collected were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, and inferential statistics such as t-test, regression and analysis of variance. The findings of the study revealed that the procedural fluency in ICT makes students more effective in learning mathematics. Also, there were significant possible correlations among senior secondary school students’ conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, productive disposition and performance in mathematics. Based on these findings, it was recommended that PF, CU, SC, AR and PD should be applied in order to achieved mathematics proficiency expectations and teachers and students should be skillful in ICT.