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GENDER
FACTOR IN MATHEMATICS PERFORMANCE AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
ABSTRACT
This study
examined the effect of gender on academic performance of Senior Secondary
students. The sample consisted of two hundred and twenty three (223) students;
one hundred and thirty-six (136) males {60.99 %}, and eighty seven (87) females
{39.01%}. This study adopted the ex – post facto design using the students’
performance in Mathematics MOCK SSCE result of some schools randomly selected
in Gbagada / Bariga Area of Lagos. The t – test analysis was used to analyse
the data collected and to test the hypothesis. The result showed that there was
a significant difference in mathematics performance of male and female students
in favour of male students. It was recommended that similar studies be carried
out to cover both Secondary Schools as well as other sectors of education since
the present study was limited to the Senior Secondary School level. Also that
there is need to develop a love for Mathematics through the setting up of
"Mathematics Club" in every secondary school that would help
influence the students’ academic performance.
Keywords:
Gender difference, mathematics performance, gender
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
The
profusion of knowledge and information has led to an increase in the number of
issues that students need to resolve inside and outside the school. Knowledge
explosion also demands prudence and careful discernment from students who are
to choose more relevant and sound data. This would require the acquisition of
reasoning skills that would enable them to filter relevant information from
irrelevant ones. Reasoning involves providing arguments, premises,
justification, and evidence to claims or positions. However, acquisition of
reasoning skills requires much from students. It requires good study habits and
positive attitudes, as well as good contextual reinforcers and influences. Many
educators have noted that learning is dynamic and that it does not occur in a
vacuum. Learning happens due to various factors and influences.
It is,
therefore, important to direct research efforts in education towards the study
and analysis of how these variables facilitate student learning. For this
reason, this study focuses on students’ study habits and attitude towards
learning and how these influence their acquisition of reasoning skills. It is
hoped that student learning can be effectively enhanced by tapping on what
students already have in them: the capacity to regulate their study habits and
to positively direct their attitudes towards learning.
Most people
have heard the age-old saying, “attitude is the key to success”. Various quotes
can be retrieved that subscribe to this philosophy. In education, research
suggests that student attitudes toward a subject lead to academic success.
Generally speaking, mathematics is a subject that is often disliked, begging
researchers to investigate how student’s attitude affects mathematics learning
Attitude
towards mathematics plays a crucial role in the learning processes of
mathematics. It effects students’ achievement in mathematics. The teaching
method, the support of the structure of the school, the family and students’
attitude towards school affect the attitudes towards mathematics. Usually, the
way that mathematics is represented in the classroom and perceived by students,
even when teachers believe they are presenting it in authentic and context
dependent way stands to alienate many students from mathematics (Barton, 2000).
Having a
positive attitude towards mathematics means generally enjoying working with
mathematics and having confidence in one’s own ability to do it but it does not
mean that a student will display this positive attitude towards the whole area
of mathematics all the time (Robson, 1996). Students love mathematics, but
those who dropout due to mathematics have a different viewpoint about it. It
leads towards the fact that mathematics is a rough and tough subject. It is the
attitude of the student which contributes a lot towards his perception about
mathematics. It develops the adaptability and applicability in the learners.
The general
conceptions determine the way students approach mathematics tasks, in many
cases leading them into nonproductive paths. Students have been found to hold a
strong procedural and rule-oriented view of mathematics and to assume that
mathematical questions should be quickly solvable in just a few steps, the goal
just being to get “right answers”. For them, the role of the student is to
receive mathematical knowledge and to be able to demonstrate so; the role of
the teacher is to transmit this knowledge and to ascertain that students
acquired it (Frank, 1988).
Such
conceptions may prevent the students of understanding that there are
alternative strategies and approaches to many mathematical problems, different
ways of defining concepts, and even different constructions due to different
starting points. In consequence, they may miss significant aspects of
mathematical experience, including formulating their own questions,
conjecturing relationships, and testing them. They may approach the tasks in
the mathematical class with a very narrow frame of mind that keeps them from
developing personal methods and build confidence in dealing with mathematical
ideas.
Associated
with these conceptions are students’ expectations of what is a mathematics
classroom. If the teacher tries some innovative activities an overt or covert
reaction of the students may quickly develop further inhibiting the learning
process.
How
resilient are such conceptions and expectations, once formed in students’
minds? Are they a simple consequence of the climate of the mathematics
classroom or do they acquire some sort of independent existence?
Despite the
interest that this topic has recently attracted, not much is known about the
possibilities of influencing these general views of the students, and
especially, what can be the effects of curriculum approaches purposely designed
to improve their views and attitudes regarding mathematics.
Burstein
(1992) in a comparative study of factors influencing mathematics achievement
found out that there is a direct link between students’ attitudes towards
mathematics and student outcomes. He also found that 25% in England and 26% in
Norway accounted for the variation in students’ attitude towards mathematics
that were due to student gender, and success attribution (belief about success
in mathematics). Student’s beliefs and attitudes have the potential to either
facilitate or inhibit learning. Gibbons, Kimmel and O’Shea (1997) opined that
students’ attitudes about the value of learning science may be considered as
both an input and outcome variable because their attitudes towards the subject
can be related to educational achievement in ways that reinforce higher or
lower performance. This means that those students who do well in a subject
generally have more positive attitudes towards that subject and those who have
more positive attitudes towards a subject tend to perform better in that
subject.
A critical
look into the above cited studies indicated that there are conflicting reports
concerning the relationship between students’ attitudes and academic
achievement. It is against this background that the present study will, in part
establish the relationship, if any, between students’ attitude and academic
achievement in mathematics.
1.2 Statement of Problem
What views
hold secondary school students regarding the learning of mathematics? In what
ways are academics performances and study habits affected by the students’
attitudes toward learning of the subject of mathematics? And how does that
influence their entire academic and learning experiences?
These are
some of the questions that we regarded as potentially interesting and we
decided to make a case study of secondary schools participating in an
experience of mathematics curricula. Our work concerned a range of issues,
including the nature of the learning process and the perceptions of the
participating students. In this research, we focus particularly on the study
habits and academic performance held by the senior secondary school students
about learning of mathematics and its effects on their attitude towards
mathematics.
1.3 Research Questions
The
following research questions have been considered to guide the study:
1. Is there any significant relationship
between study habits, performance of students’ and their attitude towards
mathematics?
2. Is study habit and performance in
mathematics significant predictors of students’ attitude towards mathematics?
3. What is the relative effect of each of
the factors on the prediction?
1.4 Research Hypotheses
The
following research hypotheses will be tested in this study:
Hypothesis
1: There will be no significant
relationship between study habits, performance in mathematics and students’
attitude in mathematics.
Hypothesis
2: Study habit and performance
in mathematics are not predictors of students’ attitude towards mathematics.
Hypothesis
3: There will be no relative
effect of study habit and performance in
mathematics
on students’ attitude towards mathematics.
1.5 Purpose of the Study
The purpose
of this study was to investigate study habit and performance in mathematics as
predictors of students’ attitude towards mathematics in Shomolu local
government area specifically the study identified:
1) Students' attitudes towards mathematics
that brings about effective teaching of the subjectmathematics.
2) Appropriate study habits for effective
teaching of mathematics.
3) Appropriate instructional method that
will be employed in teaching the subject mathematics.
4) Appropriate teaching aids that will
foster effective teaching and learning of mathematics.
1.6 Significance of the Study
It is the
view of the researcher that at the successful completion of this study, it will
be useful to both teachers and students, educational planners, educational
institutions and those who are concerned with the formulation and
implementation of educational policy as regards the new policy on education at
all level.
Also it will
help parent and government to identify those variables under the teaching of
mathematics like poor students study habits, limited time allocation for
mathematics teaching, poor teaching aids etc that are responsible for students
poor performance in mathematics through a critical examination of these
variables.
This
research is also expected to help the teachers identify the needs, to manage
the classroomeffectively and even apply appropriate method of mathematics
teaching that will enhance students performance in mathematics through
understanding the usefulness of effective classroom management and the use of
appropriate teaching method. Also via understanding the needs ofstudents and
society at large, this study will help the curriculum planners to plan and
evaluate the secondary school curriculum effectively.
Finally, it
is expected that the outcome of this study and its recommendations will
generate issues that will be of research interest to others future researcher-
interested in a topic like this and related ones.
1.6 Scope of Study
The first
phase of the study will include the formulation of research questions, the
planning of field work (with the elaboration of observation guides and of
criteria for selection of informants), the outline of the final report, and a
first contact with the field. The second phase includes the conduction of field
work and the third will be devoted to analyzing and writing the research
report.
Data would
be collected for this study through primary data gathering using a research
instrument called questionnaire and documental analysis. A number of students
would be sampled in 5 different secondary schools within Shomolu Local
Government area of Lagos State, using stratified random sampling techniques.
Each school will have at least ten boys and ten girls of high and low achieving
students. The selection, based in these criteria, would be made jointly by the
teachers and the researchers.
The field
work would be conducted in groups of three researchers and amounted to two
months. The research team will have the cooperation of two assistants from each
school, who will guide the researchers through the proper collation of research
data.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
Study
habit: The manner with which you
consistently use to study.
Attitude:
They are the views of a person whether positive or negative.
Academic
Performance: It is the ability to study and remember facts and being able to
communicate your knowledge verbally or written.
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