Socio-Economic Background of Students in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics

Socio-Economic status (SES) is often measured is combination of education, income and occupation. It is commonly conceptualized as the social standing or class of an individual or group.
Furthermore, an examination SES as a gradient or continuous variable reveals inequities in access to the distribution of resources which affect class size to the teaching and learning of Mathematics. SES is relevant to all realms of behavioural and social science, including research practice, education, and advocacy. SES affects class size to the teaching and learning of Mathematics and its also affect such as lower education, poverty and poor health, ultimately affect class sizes to the teaching and learning of mathematics and our society as a whole.
SES and educational issues research indicates that children from low SES households and communities develop academic skill more slowly compare to children from higher SES groups and this affects class size (Morgan, Farkes, Hillemeir and Mac Zuga, 2009). Initial academic skills are correlated with the home environment, where low literacy environments and chronic stress especially in

Evaluation and Marking in Teaching and learning of mathematics

According to Okpala (2000) Evaluation is the process of giving evidence of effectiveness, suitability or goodness of a programme. It is the process of giving values of grades or scores that result from testing.
According to Enyi (2006) Evaluation however, connotes judgment of merit, for example, which is better, general science, or integrated science, modern Mathematics or traditional Mathematics? It is a determination of the results of some activities (social programmes curriculum packages, teaching strategies etc) designed to accomplish some valued goals. Evaluation is also interested in the process used in the stated types of evaluation.
(i)    Placement Evaluation: It is the Evaluation of the student’s entry behaviour in a sequence instruction.
Diagnostic Evaluation: It allows teachers gain detail knowledge of student’s weakness and strengths, the causes of learning difficulties and remediation of such learning instructions.
(ii)    Formative Evaluation: Is that types of evaluation concerned with improving an on going education programme or instruction.

LACK OF EQUIPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL FACILITIES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

The shortage of equipment and facilities can affect the quality of teaching and learning, quality diminishes when the facilities required for imparting and learning are inadequate or at times not available. Olaitan (1996) remarked that the condition under which vocational education is imparted is poor. Most secondary schools and tertiary institutions lack equipment for training. Lack of workshop and workshop facilities have ill-equipped laboratories and libraries. Vocational technical education is the

POSSIBLE MEANS FOR EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF TEACHING

PEER REVIEW OF TEACHING:
One way of evaluating the quality of teaching is direct observation of the teaching by someone competent to evaluate its quality. This is often called peer review of teaching although people other than peers (other teachers) may be competent to evaluate teaching quality (ingvarson and Rowe,2008)
STUDENTS SATISFACTION
Another possibility is to ask students about the quality of their teaching or more commonly their satisfaction with their teaching. Furthermore, students’ perceptions of teaching quality may be conditioned by their expectations, which may differ for different (types) of students (Belanger and Longden, 2009:336).
STUDENTS ATTAINMENT

Family Size and Academic Performance

Family size refers to the number of children in the reference family. The larger the family the less the attention and devotion of each child by the parents and the more the difficulties encountered by the parents in meeting the needs of the children both physically and emotionally, particularly in this austerity period when the prices of food and commodities are sky-rocketed.

The Concept of Poor Academic Performance

Poor academic performance according to Aremu (2000) is a performance that is adjudged by the examinee/testee and some other significant as falling below an expected standard. The interpretation of this expected or desired standard is better appreciated from the perpetual cognitive ability of the evaluator of the performance. The evaluator or assessor can therefore give different interpretations depending on some factors.

Dangers and Consequences of Examination Malpractice

Examination malpractice is a social evil that can damage society to the extent of possibly leading to a failed state. It has very serious economic, political and social consequences. In the last ten years alone, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) had to cancel the results of 814,699 candidates in its May/June Examination (Aminu, 2006). Considering the cost of buying examination forms alone, this amount to a waste of about 2.5 billion naira. Apart from direct wastage of money, there is also wastage in the form of opportunity cost to the nation and society.

Teacher's Activity

It is well-known fact that the quality of an educational system depends on its teachers. So for effective learning in any subject, the teacher is expected to employ everything at his disposal. For instance Onwuka (1981) is highlighting some basic principles for teaching stated “the teacher has to provide opportunities for the pupils to satisfy their needs and curiosity”. He further points out that “education is a living thing and teachers should realize and show that, through activities that can create a relaxed atmosphere so that nobody feels threatened”.