Mathematics productive disposition as a correlate of senior secondary school students’ achievement in mathematics in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This study through a quantitative research methodology investigated mathematics productive disposition as a correlate of senior secondary school students' achievement in mathematics in Nigeria. A correlational research design was implemented for the study in which three research questions were answered. The sample consisted of 1600 senior secondary school year three mathematics students randomly selected from 40 schools in education district III of Lagos State, Nigeria. Two instruments namely: Mathematics Productive Disposition Scale (MPDS with a reliability coefficient of 0.88) and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT with a reliability coefficient of 0.88) were used for data collection. The collected data were analysed using Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that the senior secondary school students recorded high mathematics productive disposition. There were statistically significant relationships between mathematics productive disposition and its dimensions with achievement in mathematics among senior secondary school students. The eight dimensions of mathematics productive disposition made statistically significant contributions of 84.3% to the prediction of achievement in mathematics. Based on these findings, it was advocated that the senior secondary school mathematics teachers should develop students' mathematics productive disposition to stimulate their achievement in mathematics.

KEYWORDS:

• Productive disposition
• mathematical proficiency
• senior secondary school students
• achievement in mathematics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.