STEM Education in the University of Bamenda: A Possible Panacea to Dyscalculia

Abstract

The study set out to determine if STEM Education in The University of Bamenda could be a possible panacea to the dyscalculia of students. The study design was partly a longitudinal developmental design, and partly a quasi-experimental research design. The population of the study was made up of all the 13 students admitted into the STEM education programme of the University of Bamenda in the 2019/2020 academic year and 15 other students from the faculty of education. Data was collected using a self-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire was vetted using three experts in the field of mathematics education. A pilot test with ten students from different departments in the Faculty of Education in UBa, yielded a Cronbach alpha reliability of 0.83. Means were used to answer the research questions while the one sample t-test and the independent samples t-test were used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that the STEM Education programme in the University of Bamenda significantly reduces the dyscalculia of STEM students. Furthermore, the dyscalculia of male STEM students decreases significantly compared to that of their female counterparts after their STEM Education studies in the University of Bamenda. It was recommended that practicing teachers, especially those at the Basic Education level and arts teachers, should be encouraged to apply and go through the STEM education programme in UBa as this study has revealed that the programme has great potentials in reducing their dyscalculia. It was also recommended that some cores courses in the STEM programme should me made compulsory to all Faculty of Education (FED) students as this study also revealed that the other programmes in FED did not reduce the dyscalculia of students like the STEM programme did.