Examining the Real-life Application Problems in Welding and Fabrication Students’ Mathematics Exercise Books

Vocational education has become the focus of many countries including Ghana because of its economic contribution. One trade area under TVET that is gaining much attention is welding and fabrication because it is used in all aspects of life. Also, welding and fabrication require mathematics competencies. As a result of that, mathematics is taught as part of the welding and fabrication programme in Ghana. The mathematics content taught to welding and fabrication students should be contextualized since it is a professional course. The problem is that TVET students including welding and fabrication students have low interest and do not perform well in mathematics. To address this problem, this study sought to look at the extent to which the mathematics real-life problems in Welding and Fabrication students’ exercise books address the needs of their trade area. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which real-life application problems in welding and fabrication students’ mathematics exercise books are related to the trade area. To achieve this, a case study research design under the qualitative research method was employed for the study. Data was collected through the analysis of three welding and fabrication students’ mathematics exercise books. These exercise books covered all the exercises from year one to year three. Data were presented using simple frequency and percentages. The results indicated that only 11.27% of the real-life application problems in welding and fabrication students’ exercise books were related to the applications in the welding and fabrication trade area. It can be concluded that teachers teaching mathematics in welding and fabrication programs pay little attention to real-life mathematics problems in the welding and fabrication trade area. This can affect students’ interest and performance in mathematics thereby equipping them with insufficient mathematics skills required in the welding and fabrication trade area