GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Mathematics Ability and Attitude on Students’ Achievement in Mathematics in Senior Secondary Schools in Imo State. It adopted casual comparative design. The study was guided by three research questions and three null hypotheses and were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The instruments used for data collection were Mathematics Ability Test (MAT 1), Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT 11) and Mathematics Attitude Scale (MAS). The Instruments were face validated by three Experts in the Department of Measurement and Evaluation, at Micheal Okpara College of Agriculture Umudike. In addition, Mathematics achievement test was also content validated and the reliability indices of Mathematical Ability Test (MAT 1) and Mathematical Achievement Test (MAT 11) were established using KR-20 and reliability indices of 0.76 and 0.86 were obtained. The reliability index of MAS was established using Cronbach Alpha statistics and reliability index of 0.64 was obtained respectively. The sample of the study was made up of 600 senior secondary II students in seven schools sampled using proportionate stratified simple random sampling. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions while analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t- test for independent means were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that combination of Mathematics Ability and Attitude have significant influence on students’ Achievement in Mathematics among others. The study then recommended that mathematics teachers should consider students’ Mathematics Ability and Attitude while teaching among others.