Behavioural, Cognitive, Emotional and Social Participation as Predictors of Secondary School Students’ Interest in Mathematics in Anambra State, Nigeria

Interest in mathematics has stayed low among many secondary school students in Nigeria, and this has continued to shape the way they learn the subject. This study examined how four dimensions of classroom participation, namely behavioural, cognitive, emotional and social participation, predict senior secondary school students’ interest in mathematics in Anambra State. A predictive correlational design guided the work. From a population of 17,345 senior secondary two students, a sample of 800 was drawn through a multi-stage procedure. Two instruments, the Students’ Classroom Participation Scale and the Students’ Mathematics Interest Scale, were used to collect data, and their reliability coefficients were 0.75 and 0.85. Simple and multiple regression analyses answered the research questions and tested the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Each dimension made a significant contribution to interest. Emotional participation carried the largest single share, explaining about 31 per cent of the variation, while behavioural participation explained the least at about 21 per cent. Together the four dimensions accounted for 47 per cent of the variation in interest. The study concluded that classroom participation is a meaningful predictor of interest in mathematics, and recommended that teachers plan lessons that draw out emotional and cognitive involvement rather than mere attendance.