Classroom Discourse Patterns in the Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary Schools in Nakuru District, Kenya

Abstract

Students’ poor performance in mathematics in national examinations remains a major concern worldwide and Kenya in particular. Teachers, students, parents, curriculum developers and the public have tended to blame one another for the poor performance in mathematics at secondary school level. In an attempt to respond to this problem, the Kenyan mathematics scholars have carried out many studies in mathematics education. Despite these studies, students’ performance is still poor. This means that the main reason for this poor performance has not been established. Specifically, the study aimed at determining the type of teacher-student discourse patterns in mathematics classrooms. The study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey focusing on form 3 students and their mathematics teachers. Disproportionate Stratified sampling technique was used to select 9 secondary schools from 67 public schools of Nakuru District. Form 3 students were selected purposively. Simple random sampling used to select a form 3 stream from each of the sampled school where there is more than one stream; otherwise the stream was purposively selected. Quantitative analysis made use of descriptive statistics such as means percentages, and frequencies and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) values. The data analyzed revealed that mathematics teachers use different discourse patterns in their classes.

Keywords: classroom, discourse patterns, teaching, mathematics, Kenya