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Science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) education, the current engine for this technological generation, has made its way into Ghana's education system and is progressively becoming autonomous, particularly at the senior high level. It depends extensively on student mathematics performance to progress into their various dream STEM career programs. It is worthwhile to study the relationships between STEM students' mathematics (perception, self-efficacy, and connection) and mathematics achievement with their study interest mediating between them. The researchers purposively and conveniently sampled 385 general science respondents from eight selected senior high schools in the Kumasi metropolis for this study. The study produces results by quantifying and analyzing the collected data by investigating the six distinct hypotheses with structural equation model (SEM) using SPSS (26) and AMOS (24) software to confirm or refute fundamental assumptions. The study suggests that general science students' mathematics self-efficacy and connection directly impact their mathematics performance and, at the same time, somewhat mediate their ability to perform well in mathematics through their study interest. Moreover, there was no relationship between mathematical perception and student interest or achievement. Students must continue to evaluate the efficacy of their learning tactics to achieve academic excellence, and they must make reliable and self-efficacious evaluations of their mathematical learning as well as their mathematics connections to other STEM subjects to improve their study interest and mathematics achievement. The study recommends that stakeholders, curriculum developers, and implementers of the new STEM curriculum try to connect mathematics to all aspects of STEM as much as possible to either directly improve their performance or increase their interest in improving their mathematics education.

The study examined the mediating roles of students' perception of mathematics, students' self-efficacy and cooperative learning strategies in the relationship between teacher-student relationship and students' mathematics achievement in all the senior high schools at Atwima Nwabiagya North District. The study was carried out using the descriptive survey design. The target population was second-year students. Through purposive, proportionate stratified, and simple random sampling techniques, questionnaires were administered to 346 second year students, however, 320 questionnaires were returned. The data collected were analyzed using structural equation model with bootstrap samples. It was found that teacher-student relationship was significant negative predictor of students' mathematics achievement. The study also discovered that, students' perception of mathematics, students' self-efficacy and cooperative learning strategies were partially mediated the relationship between teacher-student relationship and students' mathematics achievement. It was suggested based on the findings that mathematics teachers should be mindful of their relationship with the students, employ varieties of techniques when dealing with students with bad perception of mathematics and also consider the kind of collaborative learning techniques to be adopted in order to accelerate students' mathematics achievement.

This paper seeks to gain insights into teachers' perceptions, and readiness to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) tools in mathematics instruction. A mixed-methods approach was employed, involving surveys and interviews with a sample of high school mathematics teachers. The study involved 90 mathematics teachers working in three senior high schools in Kumasi metropolis in Ghana. The study revealed that teachers generally hold positive perceptions of the benefits of ICT tools in mathematics teaching. They strongly agree that ICT tools enhance students' understanding of mathematical concepts and improve their engagement and motivation in mathematics classes. Teachers also recognize the potential of ICT tools in promoting problem-solving skills and providing opportunities for differentiation and personalized learning. However, opinions regarding student-centered learning, exploration, and creativity through ICT tools were more varied, suggesting a need for further investigation and support in these areas. In addition teachers expressed the need for continuous training on specific tools, curriculum alignment, and assessment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to investigate effect of the experiential learning approach on junior high school pupils' performance in finding area of plane figures. The sample size consisted of seventy (70) pupils comprising 35 in the control group and 35 in the experimental group. A quasi-experimental design was used in which the experimental group was exposed to experiential learning teaching approach and control group was taught normally using the traditional method. Pre-test and later post-test, which were based on the Ghana Education Service junior high school mathematics syllabus requirements, were carried out simultaneously on both groups before and after the experiment respectively. A focus group discussion was held with five mathematics teachers to find out the impact of the experiential learning activities on their pupils' in performance in finding area of plane figures. An independent sample t-test analysis was carried out on the pre-test and post-test scores. The findings revealed that the experiential learning teaching approach led to better development of the pupils' performance in the concept than the traditional method of teaching. The performance of experiential learning group was higher than the comparable traditional group. The teachers confirmed in the focus group discussion that experiential learning impact on learners' performance in finding area of plane figures. The study recommends that teachers should incorporate experiential learning teaching approach into their lessons to help improve pupils' conceptual understanding of area of plane figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privacy is given top priority as far as communication involving transfer of confidential document or data is concerned. There is therefore a need to keep confidential data secretive from being invaded by unauthorised access, and this is done through cryptography algorithms, where the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm has been the widely accepted symmetric block encryption algorithm for such purposes. This paper therefore focuses on developing a new AES-512 bits symmetric encryption algorithm through modification of the conventional AES-128 algorithm to be used purposefully in the classroom for document transfer. The development comes with increasing the plaintext bits of the conventional AES-128 algorithm to 512 bits plaintext which undergoes five operational transformations: STATE, SKGF, SRL, SCL and AARC through key size in the Galois field, GF(29 ). A numerical example is then given to explain the use of the algorithm, and finally, we provide a comparative study of this algorithm and other existing symmetric encryption models, such as the AES-128 and DES algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]