COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria and Attitudes towards Mathematics Homeschooling among Pre-Tertiary Students
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Date
2020
Authors
Awofala, A. O. A.
Lawal, Ruth F.
Isiakpere, Boyeagwa J.
Arigbabu, Abayomi A.
Fatade, Alfred O.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION, UNILAG
Abstract
The emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, the Peoples Republic of
China in December 2019 and it spread to Nigeria on February 27,
2020, has made the closure of educational institutions in the
country a must and homeschooling inevitable. Aside from social
distancing and putting on of the armour of basic health hygiene
and using nose masks, COVID-19 pandemic has no curative
vaccine to stop its further spread. This study investigated Nigerian
pre-tertiary students' attitudes towards mathematics
homeschooling during the period of COVID-19 pandemic.
Deploying instrumentation survey research design, three research
questions were answered and the sample consisted of 342 pretertiary students in South-West, Nigeria. Data collected through
an internet-based questionnaire created using Google forms and
loaded on the WhatsApp social media for the dissemination to the
target sample were analysed using frequency, mean, standard
deviation, independent samples t-test, and exploratory factor
analysis. Results showed that attitudes towards mathematics
homeschooling scale was a multi-dimensional construct
consisting of four interpretable factor structure of distraction and
parent negative attitude, home enjoyment, school enjoyment, and
competition and parent positive attitude. Gender was not a factor
in the attitudes towards mathematics homeschooling. Besides, pretertiary students recorded a high level of attitudes towards
mathematics homeschooling during the period of COVID-19
pandemic. In line with these results, it was recommended that
researchers and mathematics educators could adopt this
assessment tool in exploring the background predictors and
educational imports of attitudes towards mathematics
homeschooling in mathematics learning milieu during the period
of any pandemic
Description
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, attitude, mathematics, homeschooling, pre-tertiary students