Exploring grade 12 mathematics students’ characteristics and views they hold about geometry

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore selected mathematics students’ characteristics and relate these to views students hold about geometry. The mathematics students’ characteristics that the researchers focused on, related to: their gender, age, the parents they stayed with, the percentage mark they expected in an upcoming test and final year examination, whether they attended extra-classroom geometry tutorials and how frequent, whether they intended to study further, as well as which careers they wished to follow. These different characteristics were selected based on literature readings relating to, for instance, students’ choice of career, including differences between males and females in career choice. The question pose in this study was: What were mathematics students’ characteristics and views about geometry? In order to answer this question the quantitative research design was used. Data was collected using Johnson modified version questionnaire. Participants were 231 grade 12 mathematics learners at Further Education and Training phase from 5 schools in 3 districts within Mpumalanga province. The results shows that students’ estimations of marks they expected to get in tests was significantly higher than expected marks, that is a mark of 60% or more in the upcoming test (66.2%) than what they actually achieved. The results also show that students (81.4%) felt that they put more effort into solving a difficult geometry problem. It is recommended that teachers be exposed to workshops that will enhance their teaching approaches that will help students to develop interest and confidence in the learning of geometry.

Keywords: Grade 12, students, mathematics, characteristics, geometry.