This research work is set to find out the effect of mathematical knowledge in teaching and learning of physics. The research was carried out with the view of sourcing out explanations as to why there are problems in teaching methods that affect academic performance of students. Such problems include the inability of teachers to:
1. Translating learning research into practice: The lack of time for reading research results and interpreting them among teachers could have been informed by the fact that the day to day activities of the teachers are often externally determined. For instance, the school calendar, opening hours, the amount of time available for work, the reading materials and even the curriculum are prescribed by government officials outside of the school and teachers were not necessarily consulted in deciding on these issues. This situation is further compounded by the complaints of overwork by teachers. Naylor (2007) for example had documented that teachers are overworked as one of the things that could stand in the way of translating research into classroom practice.
2. Selecting appropriate models and strategies for learning: this manifest itself in the inability of the teachers in adjusting, altering, changing, or revising a lesson or portion of a lesson to make it more comprehensible and achievable for an individual student or group of students.
Many commercial school education textbooks and curricula contain lesson activity suggestions for each of the chapters, units, and/or content areas. These lesson activity suggestions are typically geared to the on-level student.
3. Providing tools to meet growing student expectations: With the current Educational development, the National policy on Education provides entirely a new system of Education. According to the National policy on education, the purpose of Primary Education is to enable the learners acquire among other thing permanent and functional literacy and numerically with emphasis on effective communication and making himself useful to him/herself and the society in which he/she lives. New changes in our educational system calls for new curriculum and textbooks.
It is seen that the place of properly written books and instructional materials if wisely made use of will assist in achieving the objectives of the policy.
1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
The main objectives of this study is to investigate into the effect of mathematical knowledge in teaching and learning of physics. Specifically, the study will examine:-
1) To examine whether knowledge is transmitted into practice
2) To investigate appropriate models or strategies for learning
3) To evaluate tools that meet students expectations.