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 (X 2 ) 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.
