Mathematics Interest among O-Level Secondary School Students in Wakiso District, Uganda

The study investigated interest levels and differences in mathematics among O-level students in Wakiso District. Since interest is a psychological state, people can be unaware of it, making it simple for educators to presume that it is or is not present. In the current study, mathematics interest levels among Senior Three pupils in the Wakiso district were evaluated


INTRODUCTION
Interest is a concept that researchers have recently picked interest in to understand the process and outcomes of learning (Atasoy, 2015).Promoting interest in education is a priority for educational institutions, particularly in mathematics, where secondary school students have a low level of interest (Xu et al., 2021).For the study of any science discipline, mathematics is a required core subject in secondary education (Duru & Okeke, 2021).The competence acquired through studying mathematics is well known and applied in many areas of life, including influencing how people interact with different aspects of their private, social, and civic lives, contributing to the socioeconomic development of a country, and serving as a link to all knowledge sources (Salifu & Bakari, 2022;Chand et al., 2021).This justifies why all students who complete basic and secondary education in most countries must study mathematics (Arhin & Yanney, 2020;Fosu et al., 2023).
Studies about interest show the values of interest in mathematics and schooling, for example, having a significant relationship with learning outcomes (Zainar et al., 2021) and predicting students' grades in mathematics (Laine, 2019).Despite the values of interest, different studies still report low interest levels among students.For example, despite mathematics being compulsory at the O level in Uganda, there are low numbers of students who continue with mathematics at the A level.For example, out of the 330,080 candidates that sat for UCE Mathematics in 2019, only 11.7% continued and sat for UACE Mathematics at A level (UNEB, 2023).To retrain teachers and improve the use of professional skills for high-quality teaching, Uganda launched the Secondary Science and Mathematics Teachers' (SESEMAT) in 2005 through the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) (Mbeya, 2020).
Notwithstanding all the attempts, the crucial question is whether students' interest in the subject may be linked to the mystery surrounding mathematics.This is because the majority of research in Uganda has focused primarily on students' academic performance and accomplishment, and the issue is still reportedly present, particularly according to UNEB.The study aimed to evaluate the levels and variations in mathematics interest among O-level students in the Wakiso District.
The study's findings are expected to contribute to the international body of knowledge on Ugandan students' interest in mathematics and serve as a source of information for empirical researchers.The study's findings may be helpful to educators and decision-makers in creating strategies to boost students' interest in mathematics, which might then be used as a springboard to raise students' interest in other science subjects.

LITERATURE REVIEW Theoretical Review
Hidi and Renninger's (2006) (Hidi & renninger, 2006;Harackiewicz et al., 2016;Renninger & Hidi, 2020).The four phases are regarded as sequential and discrete, signifying a type of cumulative and progressive advancement in situations where interest is nurtured and maintained, either from external assistance or due to perceived challenges or opportunities associated with a task.Nevertheless, in the absence of external assistance, each stage of interest growth has the potential to become inactive, revert back to a prior stage, or cease to exist entirely (Hidi & Renninger, 2006;Renninger & Hidi, 2020).
The model has been employed in studies examining interest levels and strategies for fostering interest (Darlington, 2017;Hogheim, 2017;Kwarikunda et al., 2020).When employing the model to explain the concept of interest, it is observed that interest arises from the interplay between an individual and a certain subject matter.The potential for interest resides inside the individual, while the content and the surrounding environment shape the trajectory of interest and facilitate its growth.As a result, other people, the organisation of the environment, and a person's own efforts can all help to foster interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006).
In the context of this study, the researchers hypothesised that there exist varying degrees of interest in mathematics, and that these differences can be attributed to various individual and environmental factors.

Levels and Differences in Mathematics Interest
Interest in psychology is well reviewed by Schiefele (1991) and can be traced back to Herbart in 1806.It is linked to Dewey in 1913 in modern interest research.With the advent of behaviourism, interest lost its importance in education and psychology, according to the review.Fortunately, it was revitalised by Schiefele in 1974 after the realisation that the concept of achievement motivation was solely oriented on outcomes and performance, ignoring that students enjoy learning because they appreciate engaging in certain disciplines.Researchers Renninger, Hidi, and Krapp from the 1980s are credited with the most recent study on interest (Schiefele, 1991).Interest research can help answer concerns about why people participate in or withdraw from various topics, themes, or circumstances (Laine, 2019).Interest is the tendency to continually engage with a certain object, event, or idea over time (Laine, 2019;Renninger & Hidi, 2011).According to Renninger and Hidi (2011), there are two types of interest: situational and individual.Individual interest is consistent, stable and includes delight, personal significance, a preference for a subject, and an allaround preference for a certain field (Atasoy, 2015;Renninger & Hidi, 2011).Conversely, situational interest refers to a state of alertness and affective reaction at a specific moment in the environment that may be prompted by an environmental stimulus that may or may not be persistent (Laine, 2019;Renninger & Hidi, 2011).
For school students, mathematics is typically a difficult subject where they find trouble trying to build their conceptual mathematical understanding (Asmira et al., 2021).Their interest may be substantially affected by this.Most evidence in the literature shows that students are less interested in mathematics.For instance, Arhin and Yanney (2020) and Ukobizaba et al. (2021) discovered that students showed little interest in mathematics.On the other hand, Salifu & Bakari's (2022) research revealed that students in Ghana had a good attitude towards mathematics.The contradiction in findings necessitated an investigation about mathematics levels in O level students.The lack of student interest in mathematics is attributed to various factors.Iwuanyanwu (2021) adds that both therapeutic and preventive strategies and techniques are required for teachers and other social figures to enhance secondary school students' interest.
Various misconceptions about mathematics that contribute to low secondary school interest must be dispelled under the curative approach.According to research, some of these reasons include the fact that mathematics is inherently a very challenging subject (Jameel et al. 2016), that it is boring and abstract, difficult for students to understand, has nothing to add to student's lives and that it is only appropriate for gifted and high achievers (Salifu & Bakari, 2022).Other aspects identified by research findings include inadequate practice (Kihwele & Mkomwa, 2022) and previous experiences with mathematics, such as failing or passing the subject (Ukobizaba et al., 2021).Low grades Ukobizaba et al. (2021), anxiety (Atoyebi & Atoyebi, 2022), and confidence in one's abilities (Gjoka, 2022).
Gender stereotyping is responsible for additional misconceptions.According to Akinrotimi and Imoh (2022), the majority of people believe that men are stronger and more capable than women in particular subjects, notably science-related subjects like mathematics.As a result, females tend to show less interest in mathematics than males do, for instance.Oluyemo et al. (2020) discovered that compared to their male counterparts, females show less interest in mathematics.Studies on gender differences in mathematics support the literature; for instance, Oluyemo et al. (2020) in Nigeria and Tembe et al. (2020) in the Sub-Saharan region both discovered that females exhibited much lower interest than boys.However, Song et al. (2019) discovered that there were no differences between girls' and boys' mean interests, and Musbahu et al. (2020), in a study about Junior secondary schools in Nigeria, discovered that female students showed greater interest in mathematics than their male counterparts.
Social others, such as parents, peers, and teachers, have also been noted as being to blame for students' low interest in mathematics.For instance, Jameel and Ali (2016) discovered that most mathematics teachers do not make mathematics teaching practical and engaging.Studies by Mun and Hertzog (2018) and Kihwele and Mkomwa (2022)  Based on previous literature findings, it is predicted that student interest in mathematics would be low and that there would be big disparities between individual and situational interest.Furthermore, it is anticipated that there are a variety of misconceptions and factors concerning mathematics that contribute to the low levels and variances in mathematics interest among O-level pupils in the Wakiso district based on gender, school type, and school location.The study findings are expected to contribute to literature explaining levels of interest in lower secondary school students.The findings may also help policy makers devise curative and preventive measures to improve students' interest in mathematics which may improve the overall performance in mathematics and science subjects in general.

METHODOLOGY
The study used a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, following a pragmatic paradigm.A convergent parallel mixed methods design was employed with a QUAN + qual technique.Focus groups, key informants' guides and closed-ended questionnaires were used for collecting data.

Study Participants
A quantitative sample of 335 students from 16 schools in 8 sub-counties obtained from a population of 2673 students in Wakiso District was used in the study.Thre are two counties in Wakiso District.The subcounties were proportionately selected.The county with the highest number of subcounties contributed to five counties and the other one three.Each sub-county contributed to two schools that were randomly selected, one public and one private.In the study, only mixed schools were taken into account.Proportionate random sampling was also employed to select the schools for the study.The higher the population, the higher the representation.The final sample was chosen using systematic random sampling.To collect qualitative data, one O-level mathematics teacher served as the key informant guide from each school, and six students from each school participated in Focus group discussions.Wakiso district was chosen because despite its good geographical location in the Central region of Uganda and good performance in the national examinations, there are still challenges reported about mathematics (Uwezo, 2017).Researchers wondered whether the challenges reported can be explained by interest research.
Qualitative data from students was collected using a Focus group interview guide with 5 questions, and data from teachers was obtained using interviews with a key informant's interview guide containing 5 questions.To ensure validity and reliability, all the tools were pretested, and the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient (α) for interest was 0.93.Factor analysis was also done since the adopted tool was self-constructed by the researcher and had not been tested in many contexts.The initial questionnaire had 28 items, and 10 items that were loading below .03were removed.

Research Procedure
Before collecting data, permissions from DEO Wakiso and the school administration were obtained.Pre-visits to schools were conducted, and two trained research assistants participated in data collection.The head teachers and directors of studies were reached first, who led the researchers to the class teachers.The class teachers provided class lists to aid in sampling, and students were asked to participate willingly in the study.Data was collected during convenient times of the school to avoid disrupting lessons.Focus group discussions (FGDs) were done in comfortable places provided by the school.Mathematics teachers who had been contacted prior to the day of collecting data to make appointments with them were interviewed as key informants.The interviews lasted for an average of 25 minutes.FGDs and interviews were audio recorded with consent from the participants and the school heads.

Quantitative Data
Data were analysed using SPSS version 23, and Descriptive statistics was used to test the levels of interest using aggregated mean and standard deviation, paired sample test for testing differences in individual and situational interest, t-test for differences in mathematics interest by gender and Kruskal-Wallis test for differences in interest across other demographics.

Qualitative Data
Manual analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data from focus group discussions and key informant interviews.To further clarify the pertinent quantitative findings, the qualitative findings are provided per the themes, subthemes, and categories using direct quotations from the data set.

Ethical Considerations
Permission for collecting data was sought from Kyambogo University, Wakiso district and from the schools.Ethical clearances were obtained from the Mbarara University of Science and Technology Research Ethics Committee (MUST-REC) and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology.Confidentiality was ensured, informed consent from teachers was ensured, student assent was obtained, no recordings were made without the participants' permission, and their opinions were respected.

General Information
Out of the 335 questionnaires distributed, 3 questionnaires that were not well filled were left out, indicating a 99.1% response rate.Data  The narrative shows that some students are less interested in mathematics because they think it cannot be applied anywhere in real life and attribute their low levels to their teacher's way of teaching them.The narratives indicate that students have low interest in mathematics because it is boring, hard, difficult, complicated, full of calculations, and cannot be easily applied to real life for the highly intelligent and because of their previous poor performance.They also attribute it to their teacher's way of teaching them.The narratives indicated that some students' interest, especially females, was dependent on their gender.The students' narratives show that some students' interest depends on their parents' occupations or careers.
One teacher had this to say …Another thing is the family background; for example, some parents talk ill about mathematics because some students say that their parents tell them they can't do mathematics because it is hard and advise them to take easier arts subjects they can pass like them and students take those conceptualisations seriously because they are from their models and immediate family members who even pay their fees.

CONCLUSIONS
The quantitative results indicated that students had high interest in mathematics, contradicting qualitative results that showed that students had low interest in mathematics.Different reasons were cited during focus group discussions and interviews with teachers, including socialisers, and the nature of mathematics, as reasons for the low or high interest in mathematics.This meant that improving students' interest in mathematics was not only for the students but a collective effort from all the stakeholders.Interest in mathematics is associated with many benefits, including students' learning and overall success in mathematics.Gender differences in mathematics still exist, which may be originating from gender stereotypes.It implies that girls have not overcome the stereotyping messages around mathematics, which also needs to be worked on by everyone in society.

Recommendations.
Since qualitative narratives revealed that students had low interest in mathematics, the researchers recommend all stakeholders use the curative approach to clear misconceptions around mathematics and the preventive approach by teachers looking for approaches in schools to develop and sustain interest.
The study was limited to one Ugandan district, Wakiso, so there is a need to carry out studies in interest across Uganda, including parents as key informants. levels Four-Phase Model of Interest guided the research.The model describes four stages of learner interest development and deepening: A triggered situational interest is the first stage of interest development.If this first phase is sustained, it will progress into the second phase, which is maintained situational interest.The third phase, which is characterised by a less developed individual interest, may emerge from the second phase.The third stage of interest development might subsequently lead to the fourth stage, which is a well-developed individual interest have shown that teachers' teaching methods and strategies can increase or decrease students' interest.Literature highlights the continued existence of disparities in interest in different contexts and different reasons cited.No study in Uganda has looked at the diverse levels of interest, revealing both situational and individual interest in mathematics among O-level students, and most studies in Uganda have mostly focused on academic achievement in mathematics.Various reasons were cited for low interest in mathematics and whether the results applied to Uganda lower secondary school students was worth the current study through a mixed-methods approach.The discrepancies in literature too, therefore, called for additional investigation into students' interests.

Table 1 : Levels of Mathematics interest among students
was collected from 332 students.164 (49.4%) males and 168(50.6%)females.Government-aided schools contributed to 152 (45.8%) students and 180(54.2%)private schools.Urban schools contributed to 253(76.2%) and rural schools 79(23.8%).Overall interest in mathematics was measured as a sum of individual and situational interest items.Also, comparisons against individual and situational interests were made.Mean values and frequency counts were used to establish the levels of mathematics interest.A mean of 18-53.99 indicated low interest in mathematics, a mean of 54.01 to 90 indicated high interest in mathematics and a mean of 54 indicated that one was unsure (Darlington.2017).The results are described in Table 1.
Another student said, Some are interested in Mathematics because some are interested in their teachers, while some are not.I mean the way teachers teach, dress, and handle us (Male student 6, FDG 9)

Table 5 : Kruskal-Wallis test for differences in individual and situational interest across different demographics
schools, but students in public schools have more interest in mathematics than their counterparts in private schools.The qualitative results indicated that students have a low interest in mathematics, and different reasons were pointed out.The results agree with the four phase interest model about personal and environmental factors explaining interest in learning.It is therefore the work of all stakeholders to improve students' interest.The task should not be left to only students.