Motivational Techniques used in Teaching Mathematics: Teacher's Perception and Practice

Abstract

There are several motivational techniques according to different psychologist and educationists which help teachers to motivate their learners in teaching mathematics. The objective of the study was to find out the teachers’ perception and current practices of motivational techniques used by mathematics’ teachers in mathematics classroom at secondary level. The design of this study was mixed method which is parallel research design. Different data collection tools such as open- ended questionnaire, closed ended questionnaire, checklist form and Likert's scale statement were used in this study. Open-ended questionnaire and Likert's scale statement were provided for teachers and closed ended questions were provided for students. Two mathematics classes of every teacher were observed by the researcher with the help of prepared checklist form. The qualitative data was analyzed general inductive and descriptively. Similarly, quantitative data was analyzed via frequency, percentage and Chi-square test. The population of the study was all the mathematics’ teachers and students of Devchuli municipality in Nawalpur district of secondary level. From five schools, three mathematics teachers were selected by purposive sampling method and ten students was selected by simple random sampling from each schools. All the mathematics’ teachers were found to have positive perception towards motivational techniques. They employed motivational techniques in mathematics classroom while teaching/learning activities such as warm up activities, establishing good rapport and behaving friendly with students, creating threat free environment and fair competition situation by providing lots of relevant examples and linking the daily life activities, students were actively participated in teaching activities, positive reinforcement with the feedback, summarized the session, solve the student's problems, achieve the intended objectives and thanks to students for their cooperation at the end of class. On the basis of rigorous analysis and interpretation of the data, it can be concluded that all the mathematics’ teachers had positive perception towards employing motivational techniques while teaching and other every fields. All teachers agreed that motivation is the necessary component of every field and its most affecting teaching learning process.