A STUDY OF THE CAUSES FOR UNDER-ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS AMONG SEVENTH STANDARD GIRLS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF BIJAPUR

Abstract

School Education is a foundation step in every individual's life. Better education at school level clarifies various essential concepts in all subjects, particularly the mathematical concepts which are abstract in nature. This learning is useful for the entire life. India, is marching ahead to be a developed nation and is in need of well informed citizens, which is the product of better educational system especially school education. But, lack of quality at schools in all subjects and mainly mathematics is a cause of concern. It is the duty of educators and educationists to know the reasons behind the underachievement, so as the quality education can be brought in. The minority institutes have their peculiar problem in their schools. The authors have tried to study the problems of underachievement in Urdu Medium Schools. The article presents the research report pertaining to the causes of under-achievement in mathematics.

Keywords: Underachievement, Mathematics, Primary Schools

Introduction

India is striving to be a developed nation, by developing its science and technology. The other side of the coins shows the pathetic condition of primary and secondary education. At a time when India is producing high profile technologist, scientist, economists, industrialists, and marched ahead with its mission and reached moon by chandrayan-1, it is quite displeasing to note that a major population lacks quality education. The instances of Baseline Assessment Survey (BAS), Midterm Assessment Survey (MAS), Terminal Assessment Survey (TAS) of DPEP has given the gloomy picture at the lower level of achievement in Mathematics and other subjects at primary stage. This shows that the efforts put by the high level projects like National Literacy Mission (NLM), District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), Jana Shala, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) are going in vain. The researches indicate that poor of the country are the poorest in education field in general and mathematics in particular.

Let us first see what Mathematics is? Mathematics is an important discipline for teachers, students and society. Mathematics is the mirror of civilisation and queen of all sciences. This subject develops intellectual traits like power of thinking, reasoning, induction, analysis, originality, imagination, generalisation, discovery and so-on. Mathematics enhances power rather than just developing the knowledge. The problem solving method used in Mathematics develops children's mental faculties. Mathematics not only develops all the above characteristics among children but also among teachers and members of the society, who themselves are learners first. Teachers become more disciplined, plan their lessons, classes, question papers, prepare marks memos accurately. The members of the society make use of mathematics in their day-today life situations in banks, jobs, purchase or sale etc. The above characteristics of mathematics subjects are useful in the lives of students, teachers and society. Mathematics is such an important subject that its teaching is commenced from primary level and made compulsory. It is surprising again to note that the mathematics is not being learned by the students or rather it is not being learnt seriously. This is resulting in underachievement. This is why there is an urgent need to ponder for the reasons of underachievement among of the majority of the school going children.

Review of related literature

Number of studies have been carried out in knowing the causes of underachievement in mathematics. It is the attitude of learner towards the subject which is of important factor for learning. Bhaskaran (1991) has found a positive relation among attitude in problem solving and achievement in mathematics. This achievement is different for different groups like boys/girls, urban/rural and private/government. Hariharan D. (1992) has found in his study that the girls have more positive attitude towards mathematics than boys, urban students have more positive attitude than their rural counterpart and the attitude of private school student towards mathematics is more positive than government school students. . Rosaly A. (1992) has found that the boys and girls of rural and urban areas have a positive attitude towards mathematics. But, it interest the educators to know the relationship between attitude and achievement of learners. Jayaraman V. (1989) and Doshi (1989) have also found that there is positive relation between attitude of the students and achievement Ngailiantain, Caroline, (1991), have also found significant association between attitude towards mathematics, educational aspiration, numerical ability, abstract reasoning, personality factor A and personality factor G and achievement in mathematics.

The traditional mode of teaching by chalk and talk is monotonous and ineffective. This is proved by the study of Dutta, (1990) where the Audio-Visual Mode of Teaching is found to be more effective than the controlled group, which is taught by traditional method. It is the motivation of the learners which is the main reason for better learning of mathematics. Bhaskaran K. (1991) has found that the urban and rural students have equal achievement motivation. In addition to the motivation of learners there are several other reasons for underachievement in mathematics. Following paragraph presents various studies showing the reasons for underachievement.

Kosat B. S. (1991) has found that low intelligence, poor numerical ability, poor comprehension and recall, ability, no interest in mathematics and poor study habits were the causes of the large failures of boys and girls, the Dalton Plan and group work were not followed by the teachers while teaching, the teachers found that the mathematical curriculum was not child-centred and the parents being illiterate could not help the children at home.

Jain S. L. and Burad G. L. (1988) has found that lack of appropriate classroom, black board and other physical facilities, irregular attendance of students, teachers' habit of leaving the head quarters daily and lack of residential facilities. Some difficult areas were the administrative causes, a low standard in lower classes, non-availability of text books, lack of timely correction of home work, an overburdened and uninteresting curriculum, lack of child-centred teaching, over crowded classrooms, lack of sufficient periods for the subject, use of pass books and guidebooks by most of the students, security of the teaching material for mathematics and lack of proper supervision were the academic causes.

Chel, Madan Mohan (1990) has found that the main difficulties faced by the students included the concept gaps, confusion in understanding mathematical language, stereotype way of presenting content and lack of openness in teaching. Underachievement was caused due to lack of understanding of the mathematical concepts of the earlier stage and the abstract nature of mathematics and noises in the channel of message were fear, anxiety, psychological imbalance, the faulty arrangement of contents.

Bhadri N. (1991), has lead to the findings such as the causes of poor achievement were identified as low motivation, policy of liberal promotion to the next higher class, poor study habit, lack of parental involvement in education and poor teaching.

Mohanty S. (1992), has lead to the findings such as student's personal factors have been viewed by the teachers as the most important cause of academic underachievement among the primary school children. This was followed by teacher factors, school factors, psychological factors, home and family factors, social and economic factors and miscellaneous factors. Educational factors have also been considered to be least important cause of academic underachievement. School factors have been viewed by the parents as the most important causes of academic underachievement among primary school children. This was followed by teacher factors, home and family factors and miscellaneous factors. Social and Economic factors have been considered to be the least important causes for academic underachievement.

Statement of the Problem

A Study of the causes for under-achievement in Mathematics among seventh standard girls in primary schools of Bijapur

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the present study are as follows:

• To find the causes for under achievement in mathematics among the girls studying in primary schools of Bijapur.
• To compare the causes of underachievement of aided and unaided schools.

Limitations of the study

The limitations of the present study are as follows:

• The present study is confined only to seventh standard girls studying in primary schools of Bijapur
• The study is restricted only to the girls studying in Urdu Medium schools of Bijapur.

Methodology

Operational Definition of the Terms

1. Underachievement: In the present study, "Underachievement means the poor academic performance of students in mathematics as compared to their performance in other subject academically".

2. Causes: A cause is the immediate, unconditional and invariable antecedent of the effect, and quantitatively, it is equal to the effect.

Variables of the Study

In the present study underachievement is the dependent variable, which is affected by different causes of underachievement and these are independent variable.

Tools of the Study

The investigator constructed a questionnaire for knowing the causes of under-achievement in mathematics.

In consultation with the experts in education the investigators finalised 40, items covering different difficulty areas while learning mathematics. The items were placed on four given point scale from very difficult problem (VDP), difficult problem (DP), not so difficult problem (NDP), not at all a problem (NAP).

Population of the Study

The Population of the study was the girl students studying in seventh standard of Urdu Medium Primary Schools of Bijapur.

Sample

Random sampling technique was used. In all 160 girl students from seventh standard Urdu Medium Private Schools of Bijapur were drawn from four schools viz., aided (2) and unaided (2) were selected.

Procedure used for Data Collection

The Investigator visited all four schools and obtained permission for conduct of research. Then, all those students who faired badly in mathematics in comparison with their performance in other subjects formed the part of sample. The girls of the sampled schools were informed that the data was being collected only for research purpose and would be kept confidential. They were provided calm and pleasant environment for response for responding. The respondents were given sufficient time for responding and they were also helped for answering (in case they had difficulty in understanding meaning of items). The investigator ensured that all the items of the questionnaire were responded by all the students. The average time taken for responding was one hour. The data thus obtained were coded for statistical purposes. VDP, DP, NDP and NAP were assigned values of 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The average of responses for each of the items were calculated and it is indicated in the table below for both aided and unaided schools. The t value for each item was calculated for 160 students from each type of the school. The formula used for calculation is given below,

The scores were put to test of significance at 0.05 level. It is represented in the tabular form as under,

Table 1. Showing the test of significance of different items

Item	Mean		t-value	Test of significance
	Aided School	Un-aided School
I1	1.525	1.175	*1.71	S
I2	1.350	1.000	*2.12	S
I3	1.890	1.420	*2.08	S
I4	2.620	1.600	*5.1	S
I5	2.350	1.370	*4.95	S
I6	1.600	1.020	*4.14	S
I7	1.900	1.220	*3.23	S
I8	2.050	1.300	*3.65	S
I9	2.550	1.420	*5.13	S
I10	2.210	1.020	*7.46	S
I11	1.090	1.900	*6.6	S
I12	3.190	2.500	*5.97	S
I13	3.000	1.600	*7	S
I14	2.550	1.600	*8.89	S
I15	1.770	1.600	*2.02	S
I16	1.700	1.020	*4.04	S
I17	3.470	3.650	*0.86	S
I18	1.450	1.050	*2.85	S
I19	2.830	2.500	*1.7	S
I20	1.250	1.020	*2.77	S
I21	1.500	1.020	*3.16	S
I22	2.400	1.020	*9.2	S
I23	1.300	1.020	*2.5	S
I24	2.220	3.820	*- 7.48	NS
I25	2.600	2.450	*0.625	S
I26	1.800	1.050	*3.98	S
I27	2.950	2.850	*0.41	S
I28	2.500	1.070	*9.1	S
I29	2.700	1.400	*6.19	S
I30	2.600	1.500	*4.28	S
I31	2.600	1.500	*5.5	S
I32	2.830	2.850	*-0.07	NS
I33	3.170	1.020	*11.43	S
I34	1.500	1.100	*5.61	S
I35	1.520	2.000	*1.66	S
I36	1.500	1.220	*1.03	S
I37	2.000	1.050	*5.65	S
I38	2.370	1.100	*7.47	S
I39	2.600	1.150	*8.05	S
I40	1.020	1.020	*-0.05	NS

* Test of significance at 0.05 level

N = 80 for each of the group

Findings

• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in going to school regularly.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in mathematics class regularly.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in lack of interest in mathematics.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in understanding the mathematics subject.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in adding numbers.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in subtracting numbers.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in multiplying numbers.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in dividing numbers.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in memorising the tables.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in remembering formulae.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in feelings of difficulty in remembering the squares and cubes.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in using the geometrical instrument box.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in understanding what their mathematics teacher teaches.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding to the use of examples by teachers during teaching of mathematics.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding to the use of teaching aids by their teachers.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their teacher does not listen to their responses in the class.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their teacher does not check the notebook daily.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their teacher does not check the class work.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their teacher does not solve more examples.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their teacher does not give home work.
• There is a no significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their teacher does not give any project work.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in speed of solving the problems.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in doing the homework independently.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their parents do not help them in doing home work.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in doing the home work regularly.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in studying regularly at home.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in asking the questions to their teachers.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in facing difficulty in doing home work.
• There is no significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that there is no mathematics room in their schools.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that there is no geometrical box in their schools.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools that they have mathematics text book.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their parents do not check their notebooks.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their parents do not take any special care during their examinations.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in having good study habits at home.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in practicing the problems regularly at home.
• There is a significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that their teacher does not check the home work.
• There is no significant difference between the students of aided and unaided schools in responding that there is no specialised mathematics teacher in their schools.

Conclusion

The girls studying in aided school face more problems in learning mathematics than the girls studying in unaided schools. This may be due to the personal care extended by the teachers and management in the unaided schools. Even this also makes us believe that the parents of the students in unaided schools are also more concerned towards learning of their wards. The unaided school students may be more motivated to learn and also going for extra tuitions for this purpose. Hence, it is felt that we should exploit this potential of learning among private unaided students and make them learn more, to make them good achievers in their mathematics study.

Suggestions for further Research

1. The study of underachievement in mathematics may be extended to other subjects.
2. The study which is carried out for Bijapur district may also be extended to other districts of Karnataka.
3. The study of seventh standard class may be extended to other primary or high school classes.
4. Studies may also be carried out to further suggest measures for countering under-achievement.
5. Comparative studies may also be conducted to know difference among achievers and under achievers.

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