Keyword: mathematics

8 results found.

Enhancing clinical mathematics proficiency of nursing students through heuristic-based learning packets: A quantitative evaluation
Educational Point, 2(2), 2025, e122, https://doi.org/10.71176/edup/16553
ABSTRACT: Mathematics plays a vital role in nursing practice, as it supports essential tasks such as medication administration, fluid management, and the accurate interpretation of patient data. However, nursing students often struggle to apply mathematical concepts in clinical settings where quick and accurate decisions are crucial. The study explores a heuristic way to help students become more confident and capable in using mathematics to ensure safe and effective patient care. A learning intervention was conducted among nursing students using specially designed packets incorporating heuristic strategies for understanding clinical mathematics. Data collected before and after the intervention were analyzed to identify meaningful improvements in their skills, with results handled under strict ethical and privacy guidelines. The results showed significant improvements in students’ performance in clinical mathematics after using heuristic-based learning materials. These gains were consistent across key areas such as unit conversion, dosage calculation, fluid balance, and data interpretation. The findings confirm that focused and contextual instruction can meaningfully support nursing students in developing the skills necessary for safe and effective patient care.
Optimizing mathematics achievement through real-life contexts and historical insights: The moderating role of teaching and learning materials
Educational Point, 2(1), 2025, e121, https://doi.org/10.71176/edup/16552
ABSTRACT: The study examined how applying mathematical concepts to real-life situations and using mathematical history as teaching strategies affect students’ performance in mathematics. It also investigated the impact of students’ perceptions and teaching and learning materials on these relationships. This study is important because it offers insights into how context-based and historically grounded teaching methods can enhance mathematics achievement, informing more effective and culturally relevant instructional practices. Conducted with a cross-sectional survey design, the study used a structured questionnaire to collect data from 579 secondary school students across six schools in the Kwabre East district, Ashanti Region, Ghana. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling in Amos (v.23) software. Results indicated that applying mathematical concepts to real-life situations positively and significantly influenced students’ performance. Incorporating the history of mathematics did not directly impact performance but was fully mediated by students’ perceptions. Additionally, students’ perceptions partially mediated the link between real-life application and performance. The use of teaching and learning materials moderated both the relationship between real-life application and students’ perceptions and the relationship between history of mathematics and students’ perceptions.
Mathematics and modern society: A Delphi study exploring mathematics education towards Education 4.0
Educational Point, 2(1), 2025, e120, https://doi.org/10.71176/edup/16534
ABSTRACT: Mathematics plays a crucial role in fostering innovation and addressing societal challenges, making its enhancement essential in the context of Education 4.0. This study addresses a gap in the literature by providing expert-driven recommendations for transforming mathematics education in response to the demands of Education 4.0, which has been underexplored in existing research. Through an iterative consultation process, experts agreed on integrating key 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and digital literacy. The findings emphasize the importance of innovative teaching methods, ethical use of technology, and global competence in fostering adaptable, problem-solving learners. The study also highlights the need for inclusive and sustainable approaches within mathematics education. The proposed frameworks offer practical strategies for bridging theoretical content with real-world applications.
Investigating the effect of socio-constructivist mathematics teaching on students’ mathematics achievement: The mediating role of mathematics self-efficacy
Educational Point, 1(2), 2024, e110, https://doi.org/10.71176/edup/15662
ABSTRACT: This study examines the influence of Socio-Constructivist Mathematics Teaching on students’ mathematics achievement with mathematics self-efficacy serving as a mediating factor. This study employed a quantitative research approach within a descriptive survey design framework utilizing the stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Data from 260 students in a Senior High School in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region of Ghana were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results indicated that Socio-Constructivist Mathematics Teaching significantly enhanced both mathematics achievement and self-efficacy. Additionally, mathematics self-efficacy positively impacted students’ achievement and mediated the relationship between teaching methods and academic performance. This suggests that the instructional approach directly improves achievement, and its effect is further strengthened when students feel confident in their mathematical capabilities. The study highlights the importance of integrating socio-constructivist pedagogy to foster both academic success and self-confidence in mathematics.
Examining the mediating role of teachers’ self-efficacy on realistic mathematics education: A structural equation modeling approach
Educational Point, 1(2), 2024, e107, https://doi.org/10.71176/edup/15020
ABSTRACT: This study aimed to examine how teachers’ self-efficacy mediates the relationship between realistic mathematics education and learners’ mathematics achievement, which involved 396 junior high school math teachers and a sample of 7621 students. The study employed a quantitative approach with a correlational cross-sectional descriptive survey design. The questionnaires were developed with consideration for the three main constructs that the study identified. The structural equation model was used to analyze the questionnaires. The findings demonstrated that the application of realistic mathematics teaching methods directly improves students’ mathematical achievement. Once more, students’ achievement in mathematics is directly positively impacted by teachers’ self-efficacy. Ultimately, there was a positive and statistically significant mediation effect of teacher self-efficacy on the relationship between learners’ mathematical achievement results and realistic mathematics education.
Nexus between research paradigm and mathematics education: An expository analysis
Educational Point, 1(1), 2024, e104, https://doi.org/10.71176/edup/14874
ABSTRACT: The paper highlighted the nexus between various research paradigms vis-a-viz mathematics education. Research in education entails basing the process on three fundamental philosophical traditions – epistemology, ontology, and methodology. The trio formed the core of the paradigm likely to be employed to explain the research problem – in which case, mathematics education research problems. Thus, the paper argues that employing a research paradigm in mathematics education research has far-reaching effect in giving an expository analysis of the problem. The research paradigms that were discussed in this paper comprised of positivism, post-positivism, interpretivism and critical theory. In the end, the paper suggested that, in mathematics education, applying a given research paradigm in explaining a particular research problem is imperative, and can help in viewing the problem from philosophical perspective.
The role of teacher quality on students’ mathematics interest: The facilitating effect of students’ perception of mathematics
Educational Point, 1(1), 2024, e103, https://doi.org/10.71176/edup/14873
ABSTRACT: The study aimed to examine the role of teacher quality on students’ mathematics interest as facilitated by students’ perception of mathematics. The participants were 300 students from three senior high schools. The study was purely a quantitative method that employed a questionnaire as a data collection tool. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to estimate the result for the hypothesized paths. The findings from the study revealed that teacher-student collaboration and teacher empathy had a direct positive and statistically significant effect on student’s mathematics interest. On the other hand, student’s perception in mathematics partially facilitates the relationship between teacher empathy and the student’s mathematics interest. Moreover, the perception of mathematics partially facilitates the relationship between teacher-student collaboration and student’s mathematics interest. The study recommended that mathematics teachers must collaborate with students in terms of classroom teaching and learning and work more practical mathematics examples with students in the class in order to enhance student’s mathematics interest.
Despondency in learning mathematics: Relating achievement motivation to learning amid soaring anxiety
Educational Point, 1(1), 2024, e102, https://doi.org/10.71176/edup/14871
ABSTRACT: Anxiety about learning mathematics and accompanying low grades in mathematics has caused many students to the extent that they wish never to learn mathematics again. This level of apathy epitomised by students’ demotivated participation and low performance in learning mathematics reflects the general level of learning despondency among adolescent students. Although the literature suggests that the tide of learning despondency can be assuaged if students’ achievement motivation is heightened, studies exploring the mathematics achievement motivation of high school students in Ghana are scarce. To address this gap in the literature, this study, conducted within a positivist paradigm, focused on examining the relationship between perceived mathematics learning, achievement motivation, and mathematics anxiety while controlling for learning styles and gender of 322 high school students. The results showed that the motivation to strive and the motivation to participate were respectively the most substantial and minor drivers of students’ mathematics achievement motivation. Based on the correlation and regression analysis, achievement motivation positively predicted mathematics learning whiles both achievement motivation and mathematics learning were negatively related to mathematics anxiety. The study’s results further showed that mathematics anxiety dampened the extent to which achievement motivation positively influenced mathematics learning in the regression analysis.