Evaluating Students‟ Perception of Variables that promote Creative Learning of School Algebra for Economic Development and Sustainability

The paper sees creativity as a nexus of ideas that if pedagogically developed in students’ school algebra, will positively affect the economic development and sustainability of the nation. Based on such conviction, the researchers through a survey study seek the opinion of 155 (96= male and 59= female) Junior Secondary School Two (JSS2) students’ perception of variables that make algebraic classroom creative. Two research questions were asked and answered using descriptive statistic of mean and standard deviation. Algebra Creativity Enhancing Teaching/learning Strategy (ACETS), a 12-item instrument developed by the researchers was validated by three experts in mathematics education and two experts in measurement and evaluation. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha which gave a reliability index of 0.80. Among the findings are, active participation in algebra class activities (e.g algebra games) give students more understanding and stepwise guides enables students’ understanding. Recommendations such as encouraging mathematics teachers to acquire creativity pedagogical knowledge through training and reading, and use same in their lesson plans and class activities among others were made. It was concluded that, the mathematics teacher be encourage to embark on personal capacity development.

Keywords: Creative learning, School Algebra, Economic Development, Sustainability