Abstract:
This study investigated attitudes of secondary school students towards the use of learning resources during the teaching and learning of Mathematics in Secondary schools of Baringo central district. The study adopted Piaget‟s theory of cognitive development which suggest that teaching methods and materials should be consistent with the learner‟s level of cognitive development. This study adopted a descriptive survey design. Stratified random sampling was used to categorize schools into Boys, Girls, private and mixed schools. Simple random sampling technique was applied to come up with two Boy schools, three Girl schools, two private schools and four mixed schools. At school level, systematic random sampling was applied to come out with a proportional number according to the population of the form four students of each sampled school and the same procedure replicated for mathematics teachers. A total of 180 students‟ and 17 teachers comprised the respondents group. The study used Secondary School Student‟s Questionnaires (SSSQ) and Secondary School Mathematics Teacher‟s Questionnaires (SSMTQ) to collect data on the students‟ attitudes on the use of learning resources. Descriptive and inferential statistics (the chi square) was used to analyze the data collected. Descriptive statistics involves comparison of means, Cross tabulation, use of tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The chi-square (X2) test was used to measure the differences between the independent variable and the dependant variables. The study found out that students have negative attitude towards expository learning materials used by the teachers but favor learning materials that they are in co-operated into and those that they can manipulate. Mathematics teachers should work hard to use available learning materials even if it means improvising to instill positive attitude on students towards the use of learning resources during Mathematics instruction. The study recommends the adoption of Information and Learning Technologies (ILT) such as Computer Assisted Learning and Computer Managed Learning because they motivate and arouse interest of the students.
