The Influence of Poor Handwriting on Students' Score Reliability in Mathematics

Abstract

This study examined the influence of poor handwriting on students' score reliability in mathematics. The design of the study was survey research. A sample of 200 students and 150 teachers randomly selected from secondary schools in North Central Nigeria was used in this study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument using Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.94. Four research questions were answered and three hypotheses were tested. The result indicated that when students find it difficult to write legibly, it affects their overall achievement in school mathematics and hence weakens their educational progress. It was revealed that even though many teachers see handwriting as a skill that students should be taught to enable students to do well in school mathematics, nevertheless, teachers' attitudes contribute significantly to student's poor handwriting habits in schools. The paper maintains that home is one of the factors that contribute to the incidence of poor handwriting and not school location as hitherto envisaged. Based on this finding, it is recommended that teachers should teach handwriting and also emphasize its importance in schools. School authority should organize seminars on how to teach handwriting. Moreover, parents need to create time to teach their children good handwriting at home so as to complement the teachers' efforts. Above all, word-processing programs and assistive technology is undeniably boons to students with writing problem in mathematics.