Volume 1, Issue 1, 2024

ABSTRACT: In this editorial, it is with great pleasure that I welcome the readers of Educational Point to our first issue. My colleagues and I have newly founded the Educational Point journal, and I will serve as the founding editor. When we discussed the establishment of this journal among the editors, we intended to create a premier platform for disseminating research on educational studies for theory and practice. Thus, the journal will serve as a leading platform for all stakeholders to share outstanding research findings on various research topics in educational studies. In this editorial, I will summarize our objectives, the scope of the journal, and our goals for our readers.

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.

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.

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.

ABSTRACT: In this study, the relationships between Personality Trait (PT), Emotional Intelligence (EI), and Intrapreneurial Self-Capital (ISC) are examined. A modified version of the Intrapreneurial Self Capital and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire was administered to 200 first-year and 200 third-year undergraduate students. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to explore relationships. The study found that a significant change in one’s ISC occurs with a unit increase in EI and PT. Also, in reference to respondents aged less than 18, none of the age groups exhibited a positive EI. It was also established that females exhibited a positive EI as compared to their male counterparts, whereas level 300 students also exhibited a positive EI ahead of their juniors in level 100. This study recommends that students should take an interest in non-cognitive workshops and seminars to improve their EI to increase their capabilities to cope with their future careers and work life. It is also recommended that students understand their personality traits to interact well with their colleagues at the workplace after graduation. Lastly, this study recommends that the content of courses taught in our universities should be tailored to enhance EI since the current situation is not too good.

ABSTRACT: The study was intended to explore the psychosocial experiences of left-handed students in selected religious schools in Addis Ababa. A phenomenological qualitative research design was used to understand their experiences. An in-depth interview with sixteen left-handed students was conducted purposefully in four faith-based schools, and observation was employed and analyzed by Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. The findings showed that left-handed children go through supportive and challenging experiences at home and in school settings. The supportive experiences were accepting, understanding, and encouraging left-handedness by various social members. However, the challenging experiences focus more on the repression of the left hand, and this repression is influenced by different religious and cultural beliefs, physical environment, and educational factors. These factors repress left-handers by ignoring their special needs, comparison with siblings, and forbidding performing different tasks using their left hand. Left-handed children also experience suggestions from different societies to practice using their right hands. Left-handed children were found to have particular experiences and feelings different from relatives and other societies. The study suggests that awareness raising about left-handedness and understanding of their unique experience and challenges helps to support left-handed children, among others, from bullying and teasing. Therefore, this study has implications for parents and the school community, educational training, and other initiatives that want to be involved, and the implications for further study were discussed.