Attitude

ABSTRACT
Many teaching methods and strategies have evolved as a result of research efforts in solving the general problems of poor performance in Mathematics. It is a global phenomenon which is not peculiar to Nigerian society alone. Researches at local and international domains have also reported a negative attitude of students towards Mathematics. This study considered a teaching approach of instructional presentation with smart board technology that may elicit interest of students in Mathematics in order to attain a paradigm shift from a negative attitude to a positive attitude. The pretest, post-test control group quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. Two private secondary schools were purposively selected from Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos state. Intact classes were used for control and experimental groups. The experimental group comprised 20 students while the control group has 15 students, making a total of 35 students. Students’ Attitude Towards Mathematics (SATM) with 20 items was the attitude questionnaire used for data collection. SATM was given to Mathematics educators and expert researchers for validation. 20 students outside the study were used for pilot study and the internal consistency of the instrument was found to be; r =0.81. Two research questions raised were answered after analysis with descriptive statistics. The three hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance with the use of Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings showed that the use of smart board culminated in better students’ attitude towards Mathematics. There was significant main effect of treatment on students’ attitude to Mathematics. The study concluded that the use of smart board has the potential to improve the attitude of students towards Mathematics. The study recommended that the school management should provide smart board for the teaching of Mathematics and also train teachers on its use.