Exploration of Mathematics Stakeholders' Orientation towards Mathematics Values in the South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

Mathematics is important to almost everybody for daily activities and for achieving some purposes. So, Mathematics is a compulsory subject which every student must offer in school. The students' performance in Mathematics had improved. In comparison of students' performance in Mathematics, there was a marginal improvement of 1.06% improvement in performance of candidates: This is because in 2019 and 2020, 64.18% and 65.24% obtained credits and above in Mathematics respectively. Although in the last two years, there was improvement in the students' performance, still these studies must be carried for the sustenance of the improvement. In view of this, the researchers hereby tried to gather the opinions of the mathematics stakeholders. A total of fourteen (two university lecturers, two secondary school teachers and ten secondary schools) respondents were interviewed. Atlas.ti 8 software package for analysing qualitative information was used to analyse the collected data.  The outcome of the analysis revealed that the mathematics stakeholders' views and orientation are mostly positive while only few are negative. The results of the analysis may later guide the Mathematics Stakeholders on how to effectively assist the mathematics students improve their orientation towards Mathematics values, to enhance the sustenance of the students' better performance in Mathematics.