Variation in Interest towards Mathematics Between Students with Pre-Understanding of Pedagogical Subject Matter and those without Pre-Understanding of Pedagogical Subject Matter

The study investigated the variation in interest towards mathematics between students with pre-knowledge of instructional content and those without. A quasi-experimental research design that made use of pre-test post-test and control group was used. The population of the study consisted all SS1 Secondary School mathematics students. Twenty eight male and forty one female students were selected through two schools making a total of 69 students as Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) and Mathematics Interest Scale (MAS) whose reliability indices are 0.83 and 0.79 formed the instruments of the work. While Mann Whitney U test and t-test statistical techniques were used in analyzing the data.The study revealed that students who were exposed to pre-knowledge of instruction content had more positive interest towards mathematics and better academic performance than those who were not exposed to pre-knowledge. Prominent among the recommendation is that teachers should explore exposing their students to pre-knowledge of instructional content before classroom activities to arouse their interest and enhance their achievement in mathematics