IDENTIFICATION OF MATHEMATICAL ERRORS COMMITTED BY SENIOR SCHOOL STUDENTS IN CALCULUS

Abstract

This study aimed to identify mathematical errors committed by senior school students in calculus. Specifically, this study analyzes the various types of errors committed when solving problems involving calculus. The study is a descriptive study that employed a mathematics performance test on calculus (MPT-C) as the research instrument. The study considered two independent variables which are: error type and gender. The research sample for the study comprised all senior secondary school three (SS III) students. A random sampling technique was used to select the participating schools. A total of 300 senior secondary school students were involved in the selected schools. All research questions were answered using mean gain difference while all research hypotheses were tested using chi-square. All the research hypotheses were tested at a 0.05-significance level. The results of the analysis indicated that: there were no significant differences in the frequencies of structural, supposition, translation, operation, and random errors committed by male and female senior secondary school students in word problem-solving involving calculus.