Difficulty Levels of Topics in the New Senior Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum as Perceived by Mathematics Teachers of Federal Unity Schools in Nigeria

Abstract

In line with Federal Government of Nigeria’s directives, the curriculum for Senior Secondary Schools has been reviewed for use in Nigerian schools. Some new topics have been added to the Senior Secondary School Mathematics Curriculum. It is a well known fact that teachers form the hub of the teaching and learning processes in schools. Therefore, this study was carried out to determine the difficulty levels of topics in the new Mathematics Curriculum as perceived by Federal Unity Schools Mathematics teachers. Researcher’s designed questionnaire was administered to 58 mathematics teachers from 18 Federal Unity Schools from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Percentage count, t-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the data. Findings of the study revealed that most existing topics in the previous mathematics curriculum were perceived less difficult while some were perceived averagely difficult. However, all the newly added topics were perceived very difficult to the teachers. Gender, academic qualifications, professional qualifications and years of experience were of no influence on teachers’ perceptions in the study. It was therefore recommended that provisions should be made for teachers to be trained and re-trained in workshops and seminars especially on the new topics. Relevant books, teaching modules and teaching guides detailed in the topics should also be made readily available to schools.

Keywords: Difficulty levels of Mathematics topics, New mathematics curriculum in Nigeria, Mathematics Teachers of Federal Unity Schools