Trend in Researches on Mathematics Achievement

Abstract

The quality of teaching and learning mathematics has been one of the major challenges and concerns of educators. If we consider a group of students, a few students are found to be high achievers on the one hand and a few are low achievers on the other. The question arises why such a difference in achievement appears? Is this difference due to certain factors? or Is there any single factor or host of factors which account for all the differences in mathematics achievement ? These questions often appear in the minds of the Educators, Educationists and the Psychologists, but with hardly satisfactory answers. In this paper a comprehensive review of the related literature is done to identify the factors affecting the mathematics achievement of students. Review of the related literature reflect that the most preferential variables is in psychological category are Intelligence, Attitude towards Mathematics, Self-concept, Numerical Ability and Math Anxiety; among Social variables the variables which were considered very widely are Socio-economic Status, Parental Involvement & Parents Education and among Biographical variables most frequently considered variable is Sex. I. Introduction In modern world, mathematics is being increasingly used in sciences, technologies, social science, education etc. With the use of computer and other devices there is a more emphasis in the mathematics. Though the world is more mathematically inclined, the majority of students in school feel it as more abstract. Though the teacher can teach it with the help of modern educational technological devices and more advanced effective methods of teaching, there is a poor performance of the students in the mathematics. Hence, there must be some factors like psychological, social and biographical affecting the learner in learning of mathematics at large. In a study considering the factors of achievement in mathematics, one possibly ignores those aspects in which individuals differ from one another. The starting point may be achievement in mathematics itself where wide ranging variations occur from the point of non-performance to the point of outstanding achievement in it. If we consider a group of students, a few students are found to be high achievers on the one hand, and a few are low achievers on the other, while a sizable number of students always appear as moderate achievers. The question arises why such a difference in achievement appears when the school provides more or less uniform instructional and environmental facilities? Is this difference due to certain factors? Does this difference depend upon inherent qualities? or Is there any single factor or host of factors which account for all the differences in mathematics achievement ? These questions often appear in the minds of the Educators, Educationists and the Psychologists, but with hardly satisfactory answers. Various investigators have explored numerous factors which are found responsible for success or failure in the mathematics. Such factors seem to come under three general heads, which are shown in the following table -