TOWARDS EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN MATHEMATICS TEACHING IN NIGERIA

Mathematics teaching has been described by scholars to be a task found at various times to be daunting and with a recorded number of successes and failures. It could be made to be more enticing if certain requirements are maintained. One of these requirements is the utilization of adequate and relevant instructional materials. In this regard therefore, this paper portrays what an instructional material is: types of instructional materials in mathematics and how best those materials could be utilized by both teachers and learners. Instructional materials are materials whose usage in reaching mathematics is believed to be instrumental in addressing learning problems. Depending upon the level of operation of the learner, a particular instructional material is required. Instructional materials commonly used include text books, puzzles, cones, cylinders, spheres, triangular prisms, rulers, diagrams, charts, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, transparencies, projectors etc. The paper further recommends how teachers can best use instructional materials and strategies to apply in improvising instructional materials where they are found to be in short supply or grossly inadequate.