Perceived Causes of Students’ Poor Performance in Mathematics: A Case Study at Ba and Tavua Secondary Schools

Abstract

Poor achievement in mathematics is an issue of great concern for many countries across the globe. Fiji is one of the countries in the South Pacific experiencing the same trends, pressures, and concerns. This study aims to seek the views of stakeholders (students, teachers, heads of departments, and school heads) with regards to the causes of poor achievement in mathematics at the senior grades of secondary schools in the districts of Ba and Tavua, Fiji. A descriptive design using both quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilized whereby data were collected from 201 upper secondary school respondents comprising 171 students, 16 mathematics teachers, 7 department heads, and 7 school heads from seven randomly selected schools in the districts of Ba and Tavua. The study found that the students had a negative attitude toward mathematics. It was also found that an ineffective mathematics curriculum in secondary schools was the reason behind poor performance in the subject. Moreover, many of the primary school teachers lacked potential and competence to teach mathematics at primary school levels, and this largely contributed toward the lack of interest amongst students, hence translating into poor achievement at both upper and lower secondary levels. On the other hand, however, it was gathered that secondary school teachers were rather positive, good quality, performing, and fully qualified as far as the teaching of mathematics and delivery of the subject matter was concerned. Review and amendments to the year 12 and 13 mathematics curriculum, use of technologies to teach mathematics, improving the quality of primary school mathematics teachers, reducing the emphasis on exams, introducing internal assessments, projects, and field work in the mathematics curriculum were a few of the significant recommendations made from this study.

Factores académico-administrativos que impactan la investigación de objetivos de desarrollo sostenible (ODS) en alumnos de licenciatura y posgrado.

“…Otro problema identificado es el del bajo desempeño docente, Dube & Mlotshwa (2018) mencionan que actualmente, el fracaso académico de los estudiantes es un fenómeno de creciente interés internacional por su impacto económico y sus efectos negativos en la disponibilidad de futuros profesionales. Los factores identificados que influyen en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes incluyen los antecedentes socioeconómicos de los padres o tutores, las relaciones entre profesores y estudiantes, los servicios de apoyo académico, los factores demográficos, la calidad de los educadores de enfermería, la disponibilidad de instalaciones en la escuela, el idioma de instrucción y el nivel de calificación de ingreso de los estudiantes en lo que coinciden Chand et al (2021), que identificaron maestros que carecían de potencial y competencia para enseñar, y esto contribuyó en gran medida a la falta de interés entre los estudiantes, lo que se tradujo en un bajo rendimiento.…”

Technology and Mathematics Community: A Case Study

“…Learning mathematics is a complex process, yet it is important for students' cognitive development. Recent mathematics educational studies have been fueled by students' poor performance in mathematics tests and the related factors to the problems (Chand et al, 2021;Malibiran et al, 2019;Puteh & Khalin, 2016;Sulistiowati et al, 2019;Suryadi & Santoso, 2017). The success of going through the complex process depends much on efforts from many parties.…”

Academically Challenged Students in Mathematics in Modular Distance Learning

“…Despite the crucial role that mathematics plays, students' difficulty in the subject has been a great concern to educators (Chand et al, 2021). These groups of students are commonly referred to as underachievers or academically at-risk which is a defining characteristic to a student who is likely to fail or achieve basic levels of proficiency skills in key subject areas like math (Bulger, 2006;Jayaprakash et al, 2014).…”