What factors do influence on mathematics teaching? A response using whitenization weight functions

Abstract

Mathematics is a topic very important to achieve success during learning of engineering; in this way, in this work, the teaching of mathematics from the point of the view of teachers is analysed. The approach applied in this study was the grey clustering method, which is based on grey systems theory. Specifically, the center-point triangular whitenization weight functions (CTWF) method, which is an approach based on the grey clustering method, was applied. The case study was conducted in Lima, Peru. The sample of teachers was obtained at the final stage of national competition of mathematics carried out after of previous stages of classification. The results revealed that the criteria more important that influenced on the preference from students for learning mathematics were knowledge from mathematics teacher, didactic from mathematics teacher, and motivation from mathematics teacher, in that order. The results of this study could help to teacher or educational authorities from Peru government to make the best decision on teaching and learning of mathematics. Moreover, the CTWF method showed its effectiveness during the application on the case study, and this method could be applied to other studies from social sciences or educational sciences, as the CTWF method considers the uncertainty within its analysis.