e-Pedagogium 2019, 19(2):44-58 | DOI: 10.5507/epd.2019.014

On students' attitudes towards small group teaching in mathematics lessons

Petr Emanovskýa
Department of Algebra and Geometry, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Research about students' attitudes is a current topic in understanding the processes and practices of teaching. In order to improve this process, it is useful to know attitudes of students towards its various aspects. The teaching method used is an important factor influencing the quality of teaching. The article explores students' attitudes towards one of these methods, namely small group teaching. For this purpose, a quantitative research survey was designed. The aim of this research was to determine students' attitudes towards this teaching method in mathematics lessons and investigate the influence of grade and gender on attitudes. The research method used was semantic differential for a sample of 364 primary and lower secondary school students. The research results indicated that the participants generally have a relatively neutral attitude towards the implementation of small group teaching into their mathematics lessons with the average score close to the positive perception. A further objective of the research was to find out the influence of gender and grade on the students' attitudes towards small group teaching. The average score showed that boys' perceptions of group teaching are slightly more positive than girls. The total average score by grade showed the most positive attitude in the case of 7th grade and the most negative attitude in the 8th grade with a statistically significant difference. Although the research results corresponded to neutral students' attitudes, the average scores close to the positive perception justify implementation of small group teaching into education. Moreover, the article provides instruction for work with semantic differentials representing a relatively rarely used research method.

Keywords: small group teaching, students’ attitude, semantic differential.

Accepted: August 5, 2019; Published: September 1, 2019  Show citation

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Emanovský, P. (2019). On students' attitudes towards small group teaching in mathematics lessons. e-Pedagogium, 19(2), 44-58. doi: 10.5507/epd.2019.014
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