This study examined the effect of differentiated instruction on senior secondary school students' achievement in mathematics in Nigeria within the blueprint of the pre-test, post-test nonequivalent control group quasi-experimental research design. The sample comprised 220 students in which three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The experimental group was taught with the differentiated instruction while the control group received instruction with the conventional teaching method for eight weeks. Three valid and reliable instruments, Mathematics Achievement Test (KR-20=0.89), Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (Cronbach α=0.92), and McKenzie Multiple Intelligences Inventory (Cronbach α=0.90), were used for data collection. Results revealed that students in the differentiated instruction group performed significantly better than students in the conventional teaching method group. Also, male students performed slightly better than female students with differentiated instruction, although no significant difference existed between the achievement of male and female students taught mathematics using differentiated instruction. There was no significant main effect of gender on students' achievement in mathematics. Also, there was no significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on students' achievement in mathematics. The differentiated instruction made lesson more fascinating, stress-free and created co-operation among students. It was thus, recommended that differentiated instruction be adopted by mathematics teachers in teaching mathematics at the senior secondary school level in Nigeria.

Internationally, proliferation of digital technologies in classrooms has produced digital distractions among digital natives in this 21st century. Thus, it is highly imperative to develop a suitable instrument for assessing and measuring digital distraction among higher education students to enable continuing research and practice. While previous studies had treated and measured digital distraction as a sub-component of a multi-dimensional construct and as a test, the present study through instrumentation survey research, developed and authenticated a standalone digital distraction scale among pre-service science, technology and mathematics (STM) teachers in Nigeria. The instrument is constructed by adopting a multidimensional standpoint of digital distraction around a higher-order modelling method. The pre-service STM teachers were recruited from a culturally varied university student population in Nigeria. The results showed a high level of digital distraction among the pre-service STM teachers in Nigeria and the digital distraction is composed of several connected yet distinctive factors (emotional distraction, digital addiction, and distraction by procrastination), with proof backing up a higher-order structural archetypal. More so, empirical evidence confirmed the measurement invariance of the scale with regards to gender and the consistency of the psychometric properties of the digital distraction scale. Finally, a test-retest reliability of the digital distraction scale showed that the scores are not variable over time and that the scale is not sensitive to alterations in the learning milieu. Finally, it is hoped that this tool will be handy for educators interested in isolating pre-service STM teachers at risk of high digital distraction which may cause lack of respect and privation of courtesy for instructors and personal distraction in the classroom.

This study investigated senior secondary school students’ motivation to learning mathematics and gender as correlates of performance in mathematics. The sample consisted of 315 students from two government senior secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria using the quantitative research method within the blueprint of the descriptive survey research design. Data collected were analysed using percentages, means, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) and standard and stepwise multiple linear regression analysis. Findings from the study revealed that there was a very high level of motivation to learn mathematics among senior secondary schools’ students in Nigeria. There was a significant influence of gender on students’ performance in mathematics but not on motivation to learn mathematics. It was also revealed that self-efficacy, gender and intrinsic motivation were the major significant predictors of performance in mathematics among the sample studied. Based on these findings, future studies in Nigeria should attempt to investigate the psychometric properties of the motivation to learn mathematics scale.

<p>Evidence suggests strong support for innovative teaching approaches in mathematics intervention in universities all over the world and a robust backing has been accorded to co-operative learning pedagogy, which provides strong professional development to teachers on ways of  promoting students’ social skills and aiding them to learn in a constructivist way. There is no doubt that co-operative learning is one of the most extensively documented methods to pedagogy in mathematics but little is known about its efficacy in the Nigerian university education setting. This study investigated the effectiveness of co-operative learning strategy on the achievement in mathematics of 220 university students in Nigeria within the blueprint of quasi-experimental research of Solomon four non-equivalent control group design. It also examined the influence of gender on students’ achievement in mathematics. Achievement in mathematics was measured by the differentiation achievement test with KR-20 of 0.86 and data collected for the study were analysed by adopting the independent samples t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed significant main effect of co-operative learning strategy on students’ achievement in mathematics whereas no significant main influence of gender was found on the dependent measure. Also, there was no significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on students’ achievement in mathematics. Based on the positive effect of cooperative learning strategy on university students’ achievement in mathematics in this study, it is paramount to adjust cooperative learning principles to enhance the needs of universities in Nigeria. Integrating technology to enhance enactment of major pedagogical elements of cooperative learning and to differentiate teaching and learning to improve numerous needs of students may provide a leeway to optimize mathematics results for Nigerian students.</p>

An exploration of factor analytic structure of the conceptions of mathematics scale among pre-service mathematics teachers in South-West Nigeria was conducted as evidence suggests paucity of research on psychometric properties of the conceptions of mathematics scale in Nigeria.This article through instrumentation research methodology reports the reliability and validity of the Conceptions of Mathematics Scale based on the responses of 228 pre-service mathematics teachers from five public universities in South-West Nigeria. The reliability assessed as internal consistency produced a Cronbach alpha of .88. A principal components exploration with varimax gyration established the validity of the scale as two-component archetypal accounting for 48.9% of the total variance. The dimensions were taken as Patchy Formations and Unified Formations of mathematics, as explicated in the original and other replicating studies. The factor solution could be compared to that recounted in the previous studies; hence the outcome showed the need to adopt the scale in the Nigerian context, as the pedagogy implemented during the teaching and learning of mathematics can influence students’ conceptions of mathematics. Thus, teaching mathematics with rules-based and algorithm-dependent teacher-centered pedagogies might result into rote memorization thereby leading to patchy formations while teaching mathematics as a meaningful subject full of applications to the real life could engender conceptual understanding leading to unified formations. The implication of this study is that students with patchy formation are connected with surface approaches to learning while those with unified formation of mathematics are connected with deep approaches to learning and engaging mathematics.