ATBU, Journal of Science, Technology & Education (JOSTE); Vol. 6 (4), December, 2018 ISSN: 2277-0011
Muhammad, U. S. & Maitama Yusuf, B. Copyright © 2018 JOSTE. All Rights Reserved (www.atbuftejoste.com)
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Gender, Interest and School Type as Predictors of Academic Achievement in Trigonometry among
Secondary School Students in Kano State, Nigeria
By
*Muhammad Umar, Sumaila and **Maitama Yusuf, Bello
*Department of Education,
School of General Education,
Kano State College of Education and Preliminary Studies,
**Kano Education Resource Centre,
Kano State, Nigeria.
Email: sumailamu@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The study investigated and analysed students’ gender, interest and school type as predictors of
academic achievement in trigonometry among secondary school students in Kano State, Nigeria.
To guide the study, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated. The research
design for the study was survey design of ex post facto type. The population of the study consisted of
nine thousand eight hundred and seventy (9,870) SS II students from which a sample of three
hundred and seventy students were selected in accordance with Krejcie and Morgan (19070). The
procedure for the data collection were administration of questionnaire (Students’ Trigonometry
Interest Questionnaire STIQ) and an achievement test (Trigonometry students’ achievement test
TSPT). Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) and t-test were employed to analyse the
hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that female students’
performed slightly higher than the male students’ in trigonometry. Students’ interest in
trigonometry is a predictor of achievement while the school students attended is not a predictor of
achievement in trigonometry. The study recommends that teachers should endeavour to make the
students courageous enough to be able to face the tasks ahead of them (learning trigonometry). The
study concludes that students’ gender and school type are not predictors of students’ academic
achievements in trigonometry in Kano State, Nigeria but interest is a predictor.
Keywords: Gender, School type, Interest, Academic Achievement, Trigonometry
INTRODUCTION
The sexual distribution between male and female which nature has dichotomized by
associating certain features and characteristics as specific for each can be termed as gender.
Certain tasks and some accomplishment are exclusively destined for either male or female and
very few are meant to interweave across. According to Abiem and Odok (2006) one variable that
has attracted significant attention from researchers in mathematics education is gender and also
that girls achieved better than boys in number and numeration, while boys outperformed the girls
in all the branches such as trigonometry, geometry. Köse (2001) found that girls had higher level
of school achievement than boys but boys had higher level of mathematical achievement. Kaiser-