Using Cognitive Activation to Support Constructivism in Teaching Mathematics in the Colleges of Education

This study considered cognitive activation to confirm whether constructivism is used by the tutors to teach mathematics in the colleges of education. A cross-sectional quantitative data was collected conveniently from 621 third-year teacher-trainees of the 2019/2020 academic year in three colleges of education in the Volta Region of Ghana using a questionnaire whose variables were measured along a 5-point Likert scale to determine tutors’ use of cognitive activation in mathematics lessons. The instrument was internally consistent with Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of 0.932 and externally consistent with Cohen’s Kappa’s interrater technique value of 0.924 for the 14 items that explained cognitive activation. The face, construct and content validity tests were conducted to ensure instrument validity. The mean Likert-scale response of 3.811 was corroborated by the composite score of 3.810 to indicate that tutors in the colleges of education largely teach mathematics using cognitive activation to emphasize constructivism. In addition, with a mean standard error of 0.044 and mean standard deviation of 1.096 which were significant at a 95% confidence interval, 69% of the respondents agreed that college tutors use cognitive activation strategy to deliver mathematics lessons. The study, consequently, revealed that tutors in the colleges of education use cognitive activation to effect constructivism in mathematics lessons. This conclusion should impact the teacher-trainees, to deliver effective mathematics lessons to basic school learners.