SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS’ SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS IN TEACHING MATHEMATICS

Abstract

The study sought to find out the Senior High School teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs for Teaching Mathematics. The research design adopted for this study was a mixed method. The survey research method used a questionnaire to collect data, a semi-structured interview guide was also used in the collection of first-hand information. The researcher used the simple random sampling technique to select thirty (30) Mathematics teachers and 30 students in senior high schools in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region. The questionnaires were administered to mathematics teachers and interviews were conducted for the students to ascertain first-hand information. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the questionnaires and the interview data was analyzed thematically. Findings showed that the overall mean of (4.57, SD=0.57) which means teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for teaching SHS Mathematics is high. The interview with the students also confesses the level of Senior High School Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs for Teaching Mathematics to be high as well. Therefore, it was concluded that even though the teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for teaching SHS mathematics were high it does not contribute to the performance of the schools in the final examinations. It was therefore recommended among others that a probe should be launched into why the Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs for Teaching Mathematics could not contribute to better performance of students in Mathematics