Mrs Lawani Abisola. O. is a 32years old Ph.D. student in my
department. She is however an assisstant lecturer in the Department of
Mathematics/Physics, College of Science and Information Technology, Tai Solarin
University of Education, Ijagun, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria. She is making
progress with her Ph.D. work in the department and her research focus is
mathematics education and curriculun studies. She has a number of publications
to her credit.
Abisola Olusola Lawani
Department of
Physics/ Mathematics,
Tai
Solarin University
of Education [TASUED], Ijebu-Ode, Ogun
State, Nigeria
This study
investigated teachers’ and students’ patterns of interaction in the course of
teaching mathematics in some selected secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria.
Twenty mathematics teachers made up of ten male and ten female teachers and
their students, chosen from four secondary schools in Ijebu-Ode Township
using the purposive sampling technique, participated in the study. The modified
five minutes interaction (F.M.I) section of the IEA classroom environment study
served as the coding instrument. Frequency counts; simple percentages and
chi-square analysis were used to analyze the data collected in the study. The
result indicated that the teaching of mathematics in the selected schools has
not completely divorced itself from the historical antecedents in which
mathematics classrooms was dominated by teacher instruction with little or no
student participation in verbal interaction and skill demonstration. There were
significant differences between the interaction behaviours of male and female
teachers with respect to instruction, questioning, student’s responses and
teachers’ feedback. The findings were discussed stressing the educational
implications. Mathematics teachers were advised to encourage group work among
students and to ask questions that will enhance students’ participation in
mathematics teaching.
