Assessing Students Perception of Difficult Topics in Mathematics at Senior Secondary Schools in Kano, Nigeria

Year 2018, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 53 - 59, 15.12.2018

Ado Abdu Bichi , Rahinatu H. Ibrahim Fatima B. Ibrahim

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the students’
perception of difficult topics in mathematics in some selected senior secondary
schools (SS) in Kano state Nigeria. Two hundred (200) SS final year (III) students
were randomly selected from ten (10) selected senior secondary schools within
Bichi zone of Kano state Nigeria. A twenty items questionnaire was administered
to respondents. Mean, standard deviation, and independent sample t-test
statistics were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that students
perceived 13 topics (65%) difficult to comprehend. The study also showed that
students’ gender had a significant influence on their perception of difficult
topics in mathematics [t (198) =2.34, P =0.020, α = .05] and the nature of
students’ schools had no significant influence on their perception of
difficulty in mathematics [t (198) = -.444, p = 0.657, α = .05]. It was
recommended that students should be encouraged and motivated to learn
mathematics, curriculum developers should develop instructions that would
improve students’ knowledge by laying more emphasis on the perceived difficulty
areas in mathematics and further studies should be conducted to find out the
factors responsible for the perceived difficulty and also if there is a
relationship between perception and students’ achievement.

Keywords

Perception, Mathematics, curriculum, perceived difficulty

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