The attributes senior high school mathematics teachers and their students value in mathematics learning

Abstract

Valuing in mathematics is one of the areas in mathematics education that has attracted the attention of mathematics education researchers in recent times. While efforts have been made to research the attributes students value in their mathematics learning, the same cannot be said about attributes teachers and their students value in mathematics learning, and value alignment in mathematics learning between teachers and students. This paper reports on a study that sought to explore what teachers and their students value and the alignment between attributes teachers and their students value in learners’ mathematics learning. A survey of what students and their teachers value in learners’ mathematics learning was conducted with 690 senior high school students and 66 teachers from nine schools, using adapted What I Find Important in my mathematics learning questionnaires. A multistage sampling procedure involving the use of stratified random sampling and purposive sampling procedures was used to select the research participants. The data obtained from the study were then analysed, using frequency counts, mean and standard deviation and principal component analysis. The results from the study revealed that the senior high school mathematics teachers valued Authority, Engagement, Strategy and Communication in students’ mathematics learning, while the students valued Authority, Relevance, Understanding, Engagement, Strategies, ICT and Achievement in their own mathematics learning; an indication of a gap in valuing among the two groups of research participants. Implications of the findings for mathematics teaching and learning as well as in-service and pre-service education programmes are provided.