NUMERICAL ABILITY: PREDICTOR OF SENIOR SCHOOL STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PHYSICS IN ILORIN

YAHAYA, Wasiu Olayinka, AKANBI, Abdulrazaq Oladimeji and SHEHU, Abdulrazaq

Abstract

For this study, students and school variables were considered in terms of student’ numerical ability, gender and school proprietorship. To this end, the study examined the students’ numerical ability as predictor of students’ academic performance; gender and school proprietorship (private and public) were considered as moderator variables. This study was descriptive survey type that employed the use of instrument tagged “Numerical Ability Test” and sampled 300 students across 6 public and private schools. The finding (Chi- square=18.573) of this study revealed that the students’ numerical ability knowledge was not enough to drive decision making, critical thinking and students’ ability to apply mathematical/numerical functions needed when learning mathematics- related aspects of physics. The findings also revealed that female students (M=16.5467) performed better than their male counterparts (M=14.9133) and private schools’ students (15.9800) outsmarted public schools’ students (15.4800) but the differences are not significant.