Comparative Study of the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in Primary School between Ghana and Japan: A Case Study on Fractions
Education for Specialized Subject Matter and Field Natural Science Education (Mathematics)
Supervisor: Hattori Katsunori
Kabbah Samuel Kwasi
Education is said to be a continuing voyage of discovery, an everlasting quest to achieve the fullest wisdom and stature that God meant for us. Thus education is a life long learning process that can take place in an infinite variety of circumstances and contexts. Students are taught in the classroom the essential skills that they need for expanding their knowledge outside the school. In addition to the interpersonal skills needed to gain additional knowledge, students are taught the basic academic subjects in school.
Mathematics is a highly sophisticated intellectual activity which is not easily defmed. Much of the subject that is studied today known as Mathematics is an outgrowth of thought that originall y centred attention in the concept of number, magnitude and form.
Mathematics is an activity primaril y concerned with arguments, spotting patterns and posing premises and investigating implications and consequences. Mathematics is an essential tool for man inasmuch as man and his environment, and for that matter the world, is concerned. Thus, Mathematics is seen as the pivot around which ALL activities of the world rotate. This is based on the fact that scientific, technological and industrial fields require mathematical techniques and skills for their successful operation.
Colton in Gudder (1976) said "He that gives a portion of his time and talent to investigation of mathematical truth will come to all other questions with a decided
advantage". This implies that the study of mathematics among other things disciplines the mind and in addition makes one to think logically and critically before drawing conclusions.
Fractions, according to Sawyer (2003), are supposed to be difficult to learn. And, he went on to say, the reason for the difficulty is almost certainly a wrong approach in its teaching. Too often, the attempt is made to teach children a variety of complicated procedures without any real understanding, instead of teaching children to see the situation and decide for themselves what is most reasonable.
The present research is aimed at comparing· the performance of students of both countries in solving fraction problems, and also to compare instructional practices, academic and professional backgrounds of primary school teachers of both countries.
The purpose of this is to enable me formulate recommendations towards improvement in teaching and learning mathematics in primary school. As main subjects for this research, primary school Grade/Class six students and primary school teachers of both countries were chosen. An extension iIlcIudes junior secondary school second year students in Ghana to find out their retention of primary school mathematics.
Through questionnaires and test items, data was collected from primary and junior secondary school students of Ghana, and primary school teachers of both Ghana and Japan. Results of the nationwide
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research conducted in Japan have been used as data for the Japanese primary school students.
Summary of sample population for the research work is provided in the table below.
Summary of Sample Population
DESCRIPTION NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS Ghana's Primary
School class six 282
students Ghana's Junior
Secondary School 260
second year students Ghanaian Primary School Teachers 205 Japan's Primary
School grade/class 47,044 five students
Japan's Primary
School grade/class 41,265 six students
Japanese Primary School Teachers 182
From the comparison of students' performance table, it could be observed that on the whole, the Japanese students of both Grade/Class five and six did far better than their counterparts consisting of Ghanaian Grade/Class six and junior secondary school second year students. It could equally be observed that the Ghanaian Grade/Class six students did better than the junior secondary school second year students in most cases. Items 12 and 13 which sought to test students' reasoning ability in dealing with fractions happened to be items in which students of the two countries could not do well in
,
most especially the Ghanaian students. In particular, the second part of item 12, represented by item 12.2 on the next table,
happened to be not only the worst for the Japanese students but for the Ghanaian students too.
Comparison of Students' Performance
CORRECT ANSWER
(%)ITEM
JPN GH GH
NO. PRI PRI JSS
1@ 95.3 85.8 65.4
2 80.8 58.5 47.3
3 79.3 51.4 38.1
4@ 83.4 38.3 30.8
5 90.0 43.6 49.2
6 84.5 16.3 21.5
7 87.8 42.2 29.6
8 82.4 27.7 26.9
9 85.1 17.4 17.7
10 69.9 12.8 12.7
11 77.6 16.3 18.1
12.1 38.2 18.1 12.7
12.2 21.3 1.1 8.8
13A 55.2 22.7 ·21.5
13R 43.0 4.3 15.4
@ Japanese Grade/Class five items used.
In conclusion, it is recommended that a mechanism should be put in place to ensure that ALL primary school teachers achieve at least the diploma certificate through the currently on-going Distant Education. This way, through Distant Education, teachers would improve their academic qualification while continuing with their teaching task. Hence, schools would not suffer from a shortage of teachers.
This recommendation, when adhered to, would contribute greatly to improve the primary school teachers' and students' performance in Ghana.
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