Lecturers’ Perceptions, Students’ Problems and Solutions for Handling High-failure Rate Mathematics Courses

AbstractThis study aims to determine the lecturers’ perceptions and problems encountered by students in learning high-failure rate Mathematics courses. Suggestions to remedy the current Mathematics high-failure rate situation are also explored. Questionnaire was given to lecturers who had experiences in teaching high-failure rate Mathematics courses. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis are used to analyze the data. The finding indicates that the level of difficulties for all the Mathematics courses under study, which comprise mainly Calculus are rated at least difficult subjects by the lecturers. There are some obvious variations in the students’ frequency in the usage of instructional systems. Students rely heavily on lecture notes as their basis for learning. Students’ frequency in the usage of concrete materials or equipment to explore Mathematics ideas is still below average as perceived by lecturers. Lecturers’ indication on students’ frequency of working in small groups to solve Mathematics problems is slightly above average. Students frequently practiced Mathematics procedures only in classroom as compared to making conjectures or exploring more than one possible method to solve Mathematics problem. Based on the feedback given by Mathematics lecturers, students are basically weak in basic foundation of Mathematics and do not really understand the concept of basic Calculus. Other problem that has been identified includes the difficulty in identifying the suitable method to solve a particular problem.As a solution, students should play their part by studying hard and always consult lecturers on their learning difficulty. For the lecturers, teaching method must be properly sequenced and well-organized