Students' Interest in Understanding Geometry in South African High Schools

Abstract

The major contributors of challenges with teaching and learning of Euclidean Geometry relate to teaching pedagogy, teaching methodologies, students' lack of interest in Geometry, lack of understanding of many geometric concepts and lack of use of technology. The performance of students in high school Geometry, Grade 10-12, is poor. Students with high self-efficacy that is linked to interest, are more likely to make efforts to complete a task and persist longer in those efforts. The purpose of this paper was to investigate students' interest in understanding Geometry in high school Further Education and Training phase. Participants were 390 Grade 10-12 Mathematics students from Mpumalanga and North West in South Africa. A mixed-methods approach was utilized following the convergent parallel sequential design. Qualitative data were collected through the survey questionnaire, with open-ended and closed-ended questions to determine students' interest in Geometry. Atlas ti was used to analyse qualitative data. The quantitative aspects were analysed with SPSS. It was found that students indicated that the teachers continue to teach even if they do not understand. The results also showed that more than half (57.1%) of the students felt calm and relaxed when they were attempting Geometry problems. About 60% of the students were confident enough to take Mathematics at high school level, which included Geometry. It is recommended that teachers take into consideration the students' interests when planning and preparing Geometry lessons.