Classroom Conversation: The Texture of Students' Contributions in Secondary School Mathematics

Abstract

This study is part of a larger study which explores the classroom conversation: the texture of students' contribution in secondary school Mathematics. For this part, it uses qualitative research design of two teaching strategies on Sequence and Series (Arithmetic & Geometric Progression) in Mathematics. The qualitative method examines and interprets the observations on the texture of classroom conversation via the use of videotape and transcription. The target population for the study consists of all Senior Secondary Two (SS2) students in the public secondary schools in Lagos State. The study samples involve two SS2 students of public schools in the Badagry Local Government Area. In analysing qualitative data, descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, frequency counts, percentage bar chart are used. The findings of the research question show differences in the texture of the students' contributions in the treatment classroom and those in the conventional classroom. It is concluded that the texture of the students' contributions is highly more corresponding in the treatment classroom than in the conventional classroom and it is implicated towards their learning. It is however recommended that there is need to often organize seminars or workshops in training the teachers on the contemporary concepts in teaching and learning Mathematics.