Love Learning And Create Change In Science And Technology Through Effective Mathematics Education At The Upper Basic Education Level In Benue State, Nigeria.

Abstract

It is obvious that change is the only permanent thing.  This change however, require a pragmatic education to remain; and for this education to become pragmatic requires a change of attitude by learners from negative to positive especially at this era of science and technology.  Science and technology is properly driven with sound mathematics.  Implication of this is that adequate mathematics education is required at the foundational level of education. This paper therefore considered how improving learners’ love (attitude) for learning mathematics could create change in science and technology if mathematics education is properly positioned at the upper basic education level in Nigeria.  This is because the Nigeria nation intends to be one of the twenth economically viable nations in the world by the year 2020.  It is therefore, targeted at empowering both students and teachers at this level of education, for the purpose of actualizing this very import vision of the nation.  The study was carried out in Benue State, Nigeria and covered all the upper basic education level students and their mathematics teachers.  Simple survey design was adopted, while instrument of study was a questionnaire called upper basic education mathematics questionnaire (UBEMQ) with 40 items.  Results collate was analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation.  It was found among other things, that learners’ strong love for mathematics is a primary catalyst for actualizing the nations desire for scientific and technological development which is a basic ingredient   for the nation’s vision 20:2020.Recommendations such as improving the capacity of mathematics teachers should be encouraged as well as ensuring that mathematics teachers use instructional materials in their mathematics classroom among others. Adequate conclusion was made.

Keywords: Love learning, Create change, Science and Technology, Mathematics  education, Upper basic education level