A Students' Preference on Mathematics Classroom Using Conjoint Analysis

Abstract

Mathematics is one hardest subjects that most students considered. Most studies on mathematics education are centered on the intra of the learning process and forsaking the inter component of it. The study is interested to look on students’ preference on a mathematics classroom. Four factors are being considered in the study namely type of instruction which is either teacher lecture, student reporting or combinations of them; class schedule which is either early morning, middle morning, late morning, early afternoon, middle afternoon or late afternoon; medium of instruction which is either English or local language or combination of them; and teaching strategy which is either chalk-talk, computer assisted instruction or combination of them. Orthogonal design generates twenty-nine (29) combinations of these factors. The researcher had asked 189 students who were enrolled in mathematics last 1^st Semester, SY 2017 – 2018 to rank them as to their most preferred mathematics classroom. Conjoint analysis was used to analyse the data. Results show that students most preferred on mathematics class where teacher is sometimes the one lecturing and students also are given topics to be reported, scheduled in 2^nd or 3^rd period in the morning, discussed in English and local language, and utilized computer in delivery of instruction. It also shows that students give so much importance on class scheduling over other factors. Results were being discussed in terms of the increasing awareness about mathematics education where students consider as an ideal mathematics classroom.