Abstract
Students in Kenya have been performing poorly in mathematics in both primary and secondary schools, with the majority of the students scoring below average. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which academic self-concept correlates with mathematics achievement of secondary school students in Nairobi County. The study targeted 9,641 Form 3 students in public secondary schools that had registered students for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations for the past three years. A sample of 500 respondents was drawn using stratified and simple random sampling. A questionnaire that included items from the Academic Self-Concept Questionnaire was used to measure academic self-concept. The average score in mathematics for three consecutive terms was used as the mathematics achievement for each participant. The results from the study showed that academic self-concept positively and significantly predicted mathematics achievement. Based on findings, this article includes recommendations on effective ways that teachers, parents, and other stakeholders can help increase students’ academic self-concept and boost students’ mathematics achievement.
Highlights
Mathematics finds its application in several fields and forms the basis for most scientific subjects
The differences between school categories in academic self-concept were statistically insignificant. These results show that the level of academic self-concept is not determined by the type of school attended
Of the two domains for academic self-concept, effort negatively and insignificantly predicted mathematics achievement, while confidence positively and significantly predicted mathematics achievement. These findings indicate that efforts should be enhanced to raise the academic self-concept of students, which will in turn boost their confidence in mathematics and improve grades
Summary
Mathematics finds its application in several fields and forms the basis for most scientific subjects. A good score in mathematics is a prerequisite for most courses in science-learning colleges and universities. The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) mean scores in mathematics for Nairobi County were as follows: 2013: 4.02; 2014: 3.89; 2015: 4.02; 2016: 4.00; and 2017: 3.86 (Kenya National Examinations Council [KNEC], 2018). This underachievement has implications for attainment of national educational goals because for a student to be enrolled in a science-oriented course, he or she needs to have scored at least an average of C+ in mathematics
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