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ORIGINAL ARTICLES Factors Affecting Students' Performance in Mathematics 1

Article  in  Journal of Applied Sciences Research · August 2012

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 4133
Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 8(8): 4133-4137, 2012
ISSN 1819-544X
This is a refereed journal and all articles are professionally screened and reviewed

ORIGINAL ARTICLES
 
Factors Affecting Students’ Performance in Mathematics
1
Siti Fairus Mokhtar, 2Zahayu Md Yusof and 3Masnita Misiran
1
Faculty of Computer and Mathematicsl Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 08400 Merbok, Kedah,
Malaysia.
2,3
School of Quantitative Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok,
Kedah, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT

This article describes a statistical study of students’ performance in mathematics. The objective of this
study is to explores factors that influence student performance in Business Mathematics course at UiTM Kedah.
Primary data were collected by distributing direct questionnaire to hundred students in UiTM Kedah enrolled in
the Business Mathematics course. A factor analysis yielded four factors which are interest, role of the teacher,
peers and attitude.

Key words: performance, questionaire, factor analysis.

Introduction

Students are products of universities (Alfan and Othman, 2005). After they graduated, they are the source of
manpower to develop country’s economy. Students’ performance in universities is a concern to academics,
educators and corporations. The corporation in particular are the end user in the supply chain of graduates for
the labour market. According to Geary and Hamson (2000), a better chance of employability, higher wages and
higher achievement on job productivity once employed are some reasons why students should literate in
mathematics and have excellent quantitative competencies. Students also need to possess high mathematics
performance and high mathematics’ achievement too, in order to have high literacy in mathematics. However,
Bumiputera students’ performance in the university is disappointing with the number of drop-outs involving the
Bumiputera students are alarming (Alfan et al., 2005). Dropped out students would find difficulties to search for
good jobs. Consequently, less manpower will dampen the economy in a developing country, such as Malaysia.
According to Nordin (1992), some prominent factors that contributed to difficulties in learning mathematics
are as follow:
i. Students’ dislike in mathematics that may have stem from psychological incidences such as fear, endurance,
perseverance and other associated factors.
ii. The mathematics curriculum may have failed to show much relevance to real life application.
iii. Mathematics teachers lack of having much interest in the subject, and consequently, did not help students
by way of catering for individual differences.

The lack of understanding of basic mathematical principles can result in an inability to solve numerous
subjects such as chemistry, engineering, and other important scientific problems (Bursal and Paznokas, 2006).
Bursal and Paznokas (2006) providing a specific recommendation to schools that take the responsibility for
training teachers. This is to develop positive attitudes toward mathematics and teaching mathematics.
Difficulties in mathematics are often cause by lacking of mathematics skills. The understanding of the issue,
knowledge, skills and commitment of teachers are keys of success in mathematics (Suthar, Tarmizi, Midi and
Adam, 2009).
Leng (2006) showed that effectiveness of learning depends on environmental factors such as attitudes,
interests, teaching teachers, and peers. Tin (2003) found that correlation between attitude, interest, peer
influence and perception towards teachers’ instruction with upper secondary mathematics achievement. Abu
Bakar, Kamaruddin and Tan (2009) reported that evaluation of the influence of attitudes, interest, teaching
teachers and peers on students’ achievement in mathematics. These factors are rated very important in learning
mathematics in order to ensure good performance. The factors of affecting students’ performance in
mathematics can be represented as shown in Figure 1.

Corresponding Author: Siti Fairus Mokhtar, 1Faculty of Computer and Mathematicsl Sciences, Universiti Teknologi
MARA (UiTM), 08400 Merbok, Kedah, Malaysia.
E-mail: fairus706@kedah.uitm.edu.my 
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J. Appl. Sci. Res., 8(8): 4133-4137, 2012

Role of Peers
teachers

Performance

Students’
attitude Interest

Fig. 1: Students’ Performance In Mathematics.

This factor does not only affecting college students. A study by Grootenboer and Hemmings (2007) to
children age 8 to 13 years old showed that similar factors contribute to the mathematics performance. The study
was designed specifically to consider the potency of a number of mathematical affective factors, as well as
background characteristics (gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) on children’s mathematics
performance. Data were collected by surveying the children and drawing on performance ratings from their
teachers.
A study conducted by Hame, Bahari and Abdullah (2008) showed that overall achievement of students
depend on positive attitude towards mathematics subject. Student’s with low positive attitude got lower marks in
their test. A study on students’ mathematics achievement and their interest in mathematics as well as on the
relation between these two constructs is also in limelight. The findings suggested that students show hardly any
fear of mathematics independent of their achievement level (Heinze, Reiss, Rudolph and Augsburg, 2005). Leng
(2006) in his study found that peers have positive relationship with student achievement in mathematics. This
gives the impression that student’s peer group contributed in the increase in achievement in mathematics. If
students are not guided in choosing appropriate peer group, their performance may be affected.
This paper will explore the factors influencing student performance in Business Mathematics at UiTM
Kedah. UiTM Kedah is selected since the number of students failed this course keep increasing in every
semesters.

Materials And Methods

This study was conducted to explore the factors influencing student performance in Business Mathematics
course at UiTM Kedah. One hundred students resided in first semester and enrolled in Business Mathematics
(MAT112) course offered in UiTM Kedah were selected. The selected programs were Diploma in Accountancy,
Diploma in Public Administration, Diploma in Business Studies, Diploma in Banking and Diploma in Office
Management. Questionnaires were distributed among the students from Business Mathematics classes enrolled
in November 2011 – March 2012. Students were randomly selected using the stratified sampling method. The
questionnaire was adopted from Radzali (1997). Instead of taking all the 40 items suggested by Radzali (1997),
we selected only 36 statements focusing on non-mathematics students’ beliefs about learning mathematics.
These items were measured using a semantic scale with the following anchors: 1 = strongly agree to 7 =
strongly disagree.

Results:

Internal Consistency of Reliability:

By using SPSS, we estimated internal consistency of the scores (Cronbach alpha coefficient). The 35 items
had an alpha of 0.928, indicating a high degree of internal consistency for group analyses. Items in the
questionnaire underwent the reliability analysis in accordance with the extracted four factors. The reliability
coefficient tells the consistency of the questionnaire. The widely used Cronbach’s alpha calculates the average
of all possible split-half reliability coefficients. In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha yielded acceptable ranges of
reliability coefficients. The scale on students’ beliefs about the attitude of mathematics had a very high alpha
(0.913). The scale on students’ beliefs about the role of teacher of mathematics had a very high alpha (0.900).
The scale on students’ beliefs about the peers of mathematics had a high alpha (0.891). The scale on students’
beliefs about interest in mathematics had a moderate alpha (0.752). Taking all these factors altogether, this
instrument is highly reliable in measuring students’ beliefs about mathematics and the related components.
Results of the internal consistency of reliability for four factors are shown in Table 1.
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J. Appl. Sci. Res., 8(8): 4133-4137, 2012

Table 1: Results of Cronbach’s Alpha Estimates.

Factors Number of statements Alpha value
Attitude 18 0.913
Role of teacher 6 0.900
Peers 7 0.891
Interest 4 0.752

Factor Analysis:

Factor analysis is a statistical technique used to reduce many variables to a few dimensions (Seiler, 2004).
Responses were subjected to a factor analysis using the maximum likelihood method of extraction and varimax,
orthogonal rotation. Based on Seiler (2004), both Kaiser-Guttman criterion of retaining factors with eigenvalues
greater than 1.0 and Catell's scree test were considered. From the results in Table 2, four factors were retained,
which accounted for 57.507% of the variance. Bartlett's test of Sphericity to measure the applicability of factor
analysis. The value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy is recorded at 0.825 (<0.01)
provided an acceptable adequacy of using factor analysis.

Scree Plot:

The purpose of factor analysis is to reduce the number of variables to a smaller number. In this study, factor
analysis is used to derive the new variables which are called factors in order to give better understanding about
the data. The graphical scree plot proposed by Cattel (1966) was used to reduce the number of factors from
items in the instrument. Cattel’ s scree test are plotting the eigenvalues and looking to see where the graph tails
to shallow scree. From the result in Figure 2, an analysis of the scree plot revealed that four items should be
extracted. These items have the point at which the eigenvalues seem to level off.

Fig. 2: Scree Plot Diagram Showing The Eigenvalues of The Items.

Varimax with Kaiser Normalization :

Items with loadings of more than 0.5 are considered valid contributors. Table 2 presents the factor loading
under four different categories. Factor 1 = Attitude, Factor 2 = Role of teacher, Factor 3 = Peers and Factor 4 =
Interest. Items 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 33 and 37 were loaded under Factor 1. Items
20, 24, 28, 32, 36 and 40 were loaded under Factor 2. Items 27, 30, 34, 35, 38, 31 and 21 were loaded under
Factor 3. Items 7, 13, 15 and 29 were loaded under Factor 4.
For Factor 1, item ‘I feel confident to answer questions in Mathematics’ loaded highest with factor loading
of -0.824. Factor 2 loaded highest on item 'Lecturers encourage students to meet and ask questions if there
are problems in Mathematics' with factor loading of 0.824. Factor 3 loaded highest on item 'Mathematics is
useful in all fields of work' with factor loading of 0.803 while Factor 4 loaded highest on item ‘I
am feeling angry when answering questions in Mathematics’ with factor loading of 0.746.
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J. Appl. Sci. Res., 8(8): 4133-4137, 2012

Table 2: Details of Factor Analysis Showing the Loadings of Each Item.

Item Items Factors
No. 1 2 3 4
17 I feel confident to answer questions in Mathematics. -0.824
1 I prefer mathematics than other subjects. 0.804
5 Normally, I like to solve mathematics problems. 0.779
3 I always help other partners to resolve the problems of Mathematics. 0.772
6 I enjoy reading and referring books in Mathematics. 0.722
9 Mathematics can help to strengthen my mind. 0.711
10 Friends and I form discussion groups to work together to learn mathematics. 0.668
18 I always passed the Mathematics test 0.663
14 Mathematics can help me in learning other subjects. 0.658
37 I love mathematics. 0.656
4 Lecturer success to attracted and give the attention to students while teaching. 0.641
23 I often discuss with friends about the problems of Mathematics. 0.624
19 I am easily influenced by the invitation of their peers in learning mathematics. 0.596
33 I always do mathematics exercise when I have free time. 0.593
25 Although the study of mathematics requires hard work but I feel good. 0.582
26 I always memorize mathematical formulas. 0.554
16 My friends always engaged me with mathematics problem solving. 0.540
22 Mathematics allows me to think logically and reasonably. 0.536
24 Lecturers encourage students to meet and ask questions if there are problems in 0.824
Mathematics.
28 Lecturers always make thorough preparation in teaching. 0.813
40 Lecturers can answer all questions submitted by students of Mathematics. 0.803
20 Lecturers are always ready to discuss with students about topics that are poorly 0.731
understood.
32 Lecturers are always an encouragement to students 0.689
to learn mathematicsseriously.
36 Sometimes lecturers are not confident in teaching. 0.635
27 The success of their peers in mathematics give a boost to me to be more work. 0.558
34 Mathematics is useful in all fields of work. 0.803
30 With master of Mathematics, my job opportunities in the future better. 0.749
31 I need a knowledge of mathematics to solve problems in my daily work. 0.728
21 Mathematics is useful in the today and future life. 0.713
38 Math skills enable a person going into a work of professional and technical 0.581
fields
35 My friends always help me solve mathematics problems. 0.522
7 I am feeling angry when answering questions in Mathematics. 0.746
13 Mathematics too many numbers and words caused me to become confused. 0.722
15 I always imitate my friend answer in mathematics. 0.712
29 Mathematics test question is more difficult when compared with other 0.684
subjects of test questions.

Discussion And Conclusion:

This study was carried out to explore the factors influencing students performance in Business Mathematics
course at UiTM Kedah. Results suggest that all the items were retained and were categorized under four
different categories which are Attitude, Role of teacher, Peers and Interest. The first factor (Attitude) comprised
of eighteen items and six items were categorized under Factor 2 (Role of Teacher). As in Factor 3 (Peers), seven
items were included. These items 7, 13, 15 and 29 were categorized under Factor 4 (Interest).
Generally, these four factors will become a very helpful indicator in discussing the important element of
students’ beliefs about mathematics. In the future, it will increase the performance in mathematics. The findings
in this study to be beneficial for UiTM Kedah in order to provide a model to be used as a yardstick to solve undr
under performance in mathematics courses. It will also give in depth understanding to the underlying problem in
learning mathematics, and consequently will improve mathematics performance and achievement in the near
future, not only for UiTM Kedah, but for students in higher institutions in general.

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J. Appl. Sci. Res., 8(8): 4133-4137, 2012

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