Constructive instructional teaching and learning approaches and their mathematical classroom teaching practices: A junior high school perspective

Abstract

Mathematics classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse as a result of modernity, with different people, cultures, and perspectives on how to grasp and apply practical mathematics problems. These pose challenges to teachers on the need to outline the best constructive instructional teaching approaches amid inspired mathematical classroom teaching practices. As a result, conducting this study to gain insight into the perceived intentions surrounding the use of cultural diversity, teaching with technological devices, experiencing mathematics, problem-based learning, and contextual teaching, and learning approaches in the teaching of junior high school students is extremely important. A quantitative study was conducted with 78 mathematics teachers purposively sampled from three conveniently sampled districts in Ghana’s Ashanti Region. The data were checked for accuracy and factored into four components. The data was then analyzed using the IBM SPSS-26 software, which included one sample Wilcoxon signed ranked test, an independent sample Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman’s bivariate rank correlations. In addition to its originality and kind in Ghana, important results about the factored components were obtained, showing how well teachers have embraced constructive approaches in the teaching and learning of mathematics at the junior high level, except for diversity in teaching with technology. It was also revealed that diversity in contextual problem-based learning recorded the lowest correlation coefficients with all the associated factor components, especially with technological experiencing mathematics teaching, and diversity and technological teaching. Because the selected districts are highly cosmopolitan and the world has become extremely diversified at the heart of this technological generation, mathematics teachers in junior high schools are more cautious when integrating cultural diversity with any other constructive instructional approach, especially with technology, for fear of losing students’ interest in the subject.