OâÃâ¬Ãâ¢kwu Emmanuel Ijenkeli
This study set out to determine the impact of career-related instruction on rural senior secondary two (SS2) students’ attitude towards mathematics. Stratified proportionate sampling was used to sample twelve rural schools (schools outside local government headquarters). Three intact classes were chosen from three of the sampled schools in Zone A, one intact class from one sampled school in zone B and two intact classes from two sampled schools in zone C were randomly chosen (with 189 students) as the experimental group. The same number of intact classes were chosen as the control group (with 125 students), bringing the total sample size to 314. Separate schools were used for experimental and control groups. An Attitude to Mathematics Rating Scale (AMRS) developed by the researcher and validated by experts was used for data collection. The instrument had 20 items. A four point Likert type of scale (SA=4, A=3, D=2 and SD=1) was used for scoring the items after four weeks of teaching. The design of the study was quasi-experimental (pre-test-post-test control group design). Two research questions and two hypotheses were used to guide the study. Means and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. Findings from the study indicated that the students taught mathematics using careerrelated instruction had significantly higher mean attitude rating than their other rural counterparts. However there was no significant difference between the mean attitude ratings of male and female rural students. The study therefore recommended the exposure of secondary school teachers to the use of career-related instruction in teaching mathematics through in-service workshops.
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