Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions on the use of Instructional Materials for Enhancing Senior Secondary Students’ Performance in Mathematics

Abstract

This study comprehensively examined both teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the use of instructional materials in enhancing the academic performance of senior secondary school students in mathematics within Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria. Despite mathematics being a core subject and a fundamental tool for scientific, technological, and economic advancement, students’ performance at the secondary level has remained consistently poor, prompting the need for innovative instructional strategies. Instructional materials have been shown to bridge the gap between theoretical abstractions and practical understanding by providing visual and tactile learning experiences. This study sought to explore the extent to which instructional materials—such as charts and three-dimensional models affect student comprehension and performance in key mathematical concepts like the Pythagorean Theorem and the areas and volumes of plane and solid shapes. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses, and adopted an analytical survey research design. The population comprised all senior secondary school mathematics teachers and Senior Secondary Two (SS2) students across selected public schools in Port Harcourt Metropolis. Census sampling was used to select all 150 mathematics teachers from both Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas. In addition, Taro Yamane formula was applied to determine a sample of 320 SS2 students, who were selected through a multistage random sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured 10-item questionnaire titled Rating Scale for Mathematics Teachers and Secondary School Students (RSMTSSS), divided into three sections, and constructed on a 4-point Likert scale. The instrument was validated by three experts in mathematics education and yielded a high reliability coefficient of +0.93 using the test-retest method with Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The study concluded that instructional materials are indispensable tools in the teaching and learning of mathematics and can substantially contribute to students’ academic success when appropriately utilized. It recommended that mathematics teachers adopt the use of instructional materials regularly and creatively, and that school administrators and government agencies provide the necessary resources and training to facilitate their integration into classroom instruction. The findings serve as empirical evidence to support educational policy changes aimed at promoting activity-based and resource-supported teaching methodologies to improve learning outcomes in mathematics.