Analysis of teachers’ confidence in teaching mathematics and statistics

The purpose of this study is to explore the expressions of confidence by a group of South African mathematics teachers about teaching mathematics and statistics concepts from various perspectives. The participants were 75 mathematics teachers who were teaching Grades 4 to 12 in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) schools. They then were asked to express their opinion on their level of confidence in teaching using 17 confidence items on a 5 point Likert scale, graded from very low to very high. The study drew upon factor analysis, Rasch analysis as well as regression analysis. The findings suggest that teachers’ confidence in teaching mathematics concepts is quite different from their confidence in teaching statistics concepts and those which require connections across topics. Furthermore, the study has also found differences in teachers’ confidence level by gender during the middle teaching years as well as a significant interaction between phases of teaching and whether or not teachers completed additional professional qualifications.