Investigation of Proficiency in Supportive Mathematics Topics among Senior Secondary Science Students in Rivers State

Abstract

Supportive mathematics topics are those mathematics topics, learned 
earlier by senior secondary two (SS II) science students, that can help 
them succeed in their science subjects and courses. Studies revealed that 
secondary students have poor mathematical skills. This study therefore 
investigated students’ proficiency in some supportive mathematics topics 
as it relates to their gender and the location of their schools. Descriptive 
research design was adopted. Simple random sampling and stratified 
sampling were used to select1652 students from 15 rural and 15 urban 
coeducational public secondary schools in Rivers State. Supportive 
mathematics Test (r=0.80) was used for data collection. Descriptive 
statistics and t-test were used to analyse the data at 5%level of 
significance. The result revealed that the highest mean score in supportive 
mathematics topics was in Decimal Fraction and Approximation (? =
42.65)        which is below average, meaning that, their performance in 
supportive mathematics was poor. There was no significant difference 
between the mean proficiency scores of male and female students in all 
the supportive mathematics topics (p>0.05). The mean proficiency scores better than that of rural students. It was recommended among others that 
students should take their mathematics lessons seriously at all levels of 
education because the proficiency they acquire from their junior 
mathematics classes may positively or negatively influence their success in 
most science subjects and even science courses in higher institutions. 
of supportive mathematics topics of urban students were significantly