Abstract:
Teaching strategies have a significant influence on students’ academic performance. This paper
presents results from a qualitative study that examined the effects that performance ranking in
Mathematics has on teaching strategies employed in Mathematics classrooms. In particular, the paper
demonstrates how performance ranking disguises and legalizes inappropriate Mathematics teaching
strategies. The participants for the study were Mathematics teachers and students in secondary
schools in Embu County in Kenya. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews and focus group
discussions were employed in data collection. Results showed that due to competition by teachers to
achieve a higher mean score, they engaged in examination malpractices such as leaking examination
questions to students. Secondly, teachers’ desire for excellence in their subjects, and achieving top
rank to receive prizes was found to be another reason behind teaching students to pass examinations
rather than for conceptual understanding. Additionally, the study revealed that performance ranking
promoted private tuition to offer assistance to the weak students in Mathematics to improve
performance in the subject. This paper recommends that the practice of ranking should be tailored to
include all the aspects.
