Analyses of the Responses of Staff and Students on Mathematics Mentoring in Isuikwuato Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria

The search for what will motivate the students to have a better attitude towards learning Mathematics led us to choosing mentoring. Despite the generally accepted belief that only positive effects can result from the implementation of planned mentoring programs, little research has been conducted evaluating mentoring programs, hence this effort to assess the schools’ Mathematics Mentoring exercise in Algebra by sounding the opinions of both staff and students. The present study examines the opinions of staff and students on the change of attitude of students in Isuikwuato Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria. Sixteen (16—10 male and 6 female) teachers and sixty-six students (66—36 male and 30 female) completed the questionnaires. They were asked to indicate their opinion on how the mentoring exercise has imparted on the students’ performance in Algebra. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by three experts in the field of educational Psychology. The percentage analyses show that majority of the teachers and students agree that the schools’ mentoring program has made positive impact. The chi-square analyses indicate no significant difference between male and female teachers’ and students’ opinions on Declarative, Conceptual and Proportional/Spatial Knowledge of the students. Also, fourteen students (six female students, and eight male students) of the very weak group took both the pre-test and post-test. A t-test was conducted and both groups (the male students and the female students) had significance levels less than 0.05, so there was a statistically significant difference in the scores from the pre-test to the post-test, showing that Mathematics mentoring exercise in Algebra imparted positively on the student. Proponents of mentoring programs hypothesize that mentoring programs could be part of the answer to the problems children/students; however, little research has been conducted evaluating the effectiveness of mentoring programs. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers should go extra mile in doing all they can towards students academic development.