Professionalism in Teaching Mathematics: Demographic Profiling of Secondary School Mathematics Teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to chart a demographic profile of secondary school mathematics teachers using the key variables of length of teaching experience, subject of study in the university, and highest academic qualification. The study was guided by one research question and two hypotheses. The study was conducted in Taraba State, Nigeria. The target population was all secondary school mathematics teachers in the state. The sample was 327 secondary school mathematics teachers. They were drawn from 60 secondary schools, through a multistage sampling procedure that consisted of stratified, simple random, and purposive sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was Problem Solving Self Administered Questionnaire (PSSAQ). The result showed that teachers who teach mathematics come from diverse backgrounds, study a wide variety of subjects in the university and less than 40% of teachers who teach mathematics have teacher certification in mathematics education. The results also showed that teachers who have less than three years of experience and those with more than 10 years experience have different conceptions than those who have between seven and nine years experience.