STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF DIFFICULT TOPICS IN THE NEW SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM

The study investigated students’ perception of difficult topics in the new senior secondary school mathematics curriculum in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Purposive randomization was used to select three hundred (300) students such that twenty (20) students were selected from fifteen (15) schools which comprised of Nine (9) mixed schools and Six (6) single schools. Four general questions were formulated and answered descriptively while four hypotheses of the study were tested using t-test statistic and ANOVA. The study revealed that students perceived most of the newly added topics in the curriculum to be very difficult to understand. The result showed that gender, location, age, and school type do not affect the students’ perception of difficult topics in the mathematics curriculum. The study recommended that students’ perception of mathematics can be changed through encouragement from Mathematics teachers, adoption of progressive teaching methods, and provision of relevant instructional materials. Mathematics teachers should be motivated to give their best through the State Ministry of Education by increasing their allowances.