Effects of Teachers’ Self-Concept, Teaching Methods and Students’ Attitudes on Mathematics Trial Examination Performance in Senior Secondary Schools in Bauchi State, Nigeria

Persistent underachievement in mathematics among senior secondary school students in Bauchi state, Nigeria, has raise concerns about the underlying factors contributing to this issue.Thus, this study investigated the effects of teachers' self-concept, teaching methods, and students' attitudes towards learning relate to students' performance in mathematics trial examinations.Although existing research has considered these factors individually, their combined effects within the context of Bauchi state remains unexplored.Specifically, this study aimed to determine the predictive strength of these three variables on students' performance in mathematics.A causal-comparative and correlational research design was used, involving 133 mathematics teachers and 381 senior secondary students from 25 public schools in Bauchi State, selected via random sampling.Four instruments were used: the Mathematics Teaching Methods Questionnaire (MTMQ), Teachers' Self-Concept Questionnaire (TSQ), Students' Attitude towards Mathematics Questionnaire (SAMQ), and Mathematics Trial Examination Records (MTER).Analysis with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that teachers' self-concept significantly impacted student performance (path coefficient = 0.066, p = 0.