Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study the state and problems and propose guidelines for solving problems of mathematics instruction in secondary schools. The subjects were 316 Mathematics teachers in secondary schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission , Bangkok metropolis. The research instruments used for gathering information were the questionnaires, the interview form and the observation form. Data were analyzed by using frequency and percentage. The findings of the study can be summarized as follows: The state of instruction in the aspects of : 1) Curriculum ; Mathematics teachers had knowledge and understanding of curriculum in the moderate level and were able to arrange the steps of learning standards and introduced them in class correctly, 2) Learning activities ; Mathematics teachers had knowledge and understanding in the high level and had the principles of learning activities by analyzing contents and choosing suitable learning activities for students, 3) Instructional media/technology/innovation ; Mathematics teachers had the principles of choosing instructional media to suit contents and students characteristics. The regular media was a material media such as pictures and geometry models. The regular teaching documents were exercises and work- sheets , and 4) Learning assessment ; Mathematics teachers had a principle of assessing students learning regularly ; before, during and after learning in class, and three parts were assessed : knowledge, attitude and mathematics skills/processes. The assessment tool was a test. The problems were found in the aspects of : 1) Curriculum ; Mathematics teachers lacked of knowledge and understanding about curriculum and lacked of skills to analyze the subject description for making learning objectives, 2) Learning activities ; Mathematics teachers had the problem in controlling classes which had the huge numbers of students, 3) Instructional medias ; Mathematics teachers had no time and lacked of budgets , and 4) Learning assessment ; assessment tool design was not good enough, and no time to assess all objectives. The guidelines for solving mathematics instruction problems are to hold the workshops for Mathematics teachers to gain more knowledge of curriculum, instruction, instructional media making, and assessment. Also, the instructional media and the budgets should be provided sufficiently.