RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATHEMATICAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND MATHEMATICS PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN KUTIGI EDUCATIONAL ZONE, NIGER STATE

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between Mathematical communication skills and Mathematics performance of secondary school students in Kutigi Educational Zone of Niger State. Six research questions and hypotheses were used for the study. A correlational research design was adopted for the study. The sample of the study was made up of 269 (179 males and 90 females) students drawn from the target population of 858 students. The research instrument used was Mathematical Communication Skills Test (MCST). The instrument was validated by experts from Department of Science Education, Federal University of Technology Minna and a secondary school Mathematics Teacher. The reliability of instrument five (5) constructs were 0.82, 0.74, 0.81, 0.70 and 0.71 respectively with the average reliability of 0.76 using PPMC coefficients. Students Promotion Examination Scores of Mathematics was used as their Mathematics Performance. Research questions were answered using Mean and Standard deviation with Scatterplots while hypotheses were tested using PPMC at 0.05 level of significance. The results indicated that Mathematical Communication Skills of the secondary school students were low. Also, the Mathematical Communication Skills studied were contributors to Mathematics performance of secondary school students. Similarly, there was positive relationship between Gender and Mathematical Communication Skills of secondary school students. The study recommended that mathematics teachers should adopt a good measure to strengthen these Mathematical communication skills during teaching and learning process to enhance students’ performance in Mathematics.