EXAMINING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ THOUGTS RELATED WITH REASONS EFFECT FAILURE IN MATHEMATICS

Dr. Zeynep Cigdem Ozcan
Dr. Isa Esme
Maltepe University

Abstract

Mathematics lesson is an influentional lesson applied in schools. Researches related with mathematics show that some factors influence mathematics achievement. The aim of this study is to examine middle school students’ evaluations related with factors affecting mathematics achievement and the relationship between mathematics achievement and some demographic factors. Sample consisted of 3263 students who are attending senior class and preparing for university exam from different high school. Depending on aim of the study two measurement instruments were used. First one is a questionnaire called “Students thoughts related with failure in mathematics and science lessons”. This questionnaire consisted of 10 items which is prepared in the light of literature review. The second one is an open ended question to get information about students evaluations related with factors effecting science and mathematics achievement. Besides student personal information form is used to determine demographic features of sample included in the research. Collected data was transformed into frequencies and percentages and findings were investigated with “Chi square” test. Both questionnaire and open ended question results showed that students primarily pointed out the factors of their failure as themselves then the factors related with teachers, education system, physical environment and technological equipment respectively. The relationship between gender and mathematics achievement showed that there is a significant difference between male and female students in the favor of girls only between students who get very good marks (9-10) from mathematics exam and students who get poor marks (0-4). Other results of this study showed that there is a significant positive relationship between education level of parents and children’s achievement.

Keywords

Achievement of mathematics, Students’ opinions, High school students.