A STUDY ON DIFFICULT ON A STUDY ON DIFFICULT ON MATHEMATICS SUBJECT AMONG THE MATHEMATICS SUBJECT AMONG THE

STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE IN DINDIGUL DISTRICTIN DINDIGUL DISTRICT

Presented by

G. UMAG. UMAAssistant Professor

Department of Mathematics

ANNA UNIVERSITYANNA UNIVERSITY University College of EngineeringUniversity College of Engineering

Dindigul.Dindigul.

Co-Author

Dr. B. V. GOPALDr. B. V. GOPAL

Vice PrincipalVice Principal

K. Nanjappa Gounder College of K. Nanjappa Gounder College of EducationEducation

Akyshaya Nagar

Dindigul, Tamilnadugopaletbdu@gmail.com

CONTEXTUAL PROLOGUE

Mathematics subject is indispensable part in Engineering

studies. If our students are to function effectively in this era

of rapid technological advancement and globalization, they

must be Mathematically Literate.

But nowadays in our Engineering stream, Mathematics is

considered as one of the main obstacle to get through their

degree.

Cont…

The Kothari Commission (1964-66) emphasizes the

significance of mathematics in by stating that “The advent

of automation and cybernetics, in this century, marks the

beginning of the scientific industrial revolution and makes

it all the more imperative to devote special attention to the

study of mathematics. Proper foundation to the knowledge

of the subject should be laid in the school”.

Sazhin, 1997 has correctly pointed out that “mathematics is

an essential for engineering area to be understanding as a

language for describing physical, chemical, and other

formulation in term of mathematical enquiry”

RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

The aims of teaching mathematics and sciences will be distinct

from those of teaching languages and social sciences.

Mathematics with its special features has wider applications in

daily life and other fields of study. This facilitates the correlation

of mathematics with other fields and disciplines.

As the teaching of Mathematics subject should be visualized as

the vehicle to train an engineering student to think, reason,

analyze and to articulate logically, the “Investigators sorted

out the level of the Difficulties on Achievement in

Mathematics among the Engineering Students”.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Major objective of the study was

To find out the level of Difficult on Mathematics

Subject among the Students of Engineering College.

Specific objective of the study were

To find out Significant Difference on Mean Values of Difficult

on Mathematics subject among Male and Female students

of engineering college.

To find out the Significant Difference on Mean Values of

Difficult on Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college with respect to their Locality of

Residence. Cont….

Cont…

To find out the Significant Difference on Mean Values of

Difficult on Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college with respect to their Type of

Management.

To find out the Significant Difference on Mean Values of

Difficult on Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college with respect to their Parental

Education.

To find out the Significant Difference on Mean Values of

Difficult on Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college with respect to their Parental Income.

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

The hypotheses of the study were framed according to the

objectives of the study and were stated below.

There is no Significant Difference on Mean Values of Difficult

on Mathematics subject among the students of engineering

college with respect to their Gender.

There is no Significant Difference on Mean Values of Difficult

on Mathematics subject among the students of engineering

college with respect to their Locality of Residence.

There is no Significant Difference on Mean Values of Difficult

on Mathematics subject among the students of engineering

college with respect to their Type of Management.

Cont….

Cont….

There is no Significant Difference On Mean Values Of

Difficult on Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college with respect to their Parental

Education.

There is no Significant Difference on Mean Values of

Difficult on Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college with respect to their Parental

Income.

METHODOLOGY

The design of the present research study

belongs to the Survey Method.

(i) Selection and Size of the Sample

Random Sampling Technique was used to select the sample.

Sample consisted of 150 Engineering students from

different Colleges of Engineering.

Cont..

(ii) Variables of the Study

The Dependent Variable involved in this study was

Difficult on Achievement in Mathematics.

The Demographic variables used in this study were

Gender, Locality of residence, Type of Management,

Parental Education and Parental Income.

Cont..

(iii) Tool Development

The investigators themselves developed the tool namely,

“Difficult on Achievement in Mathematics (DAM)”.

The tool comprises 55 items in four point rating scale

such as Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree.

To conduct pilot study preliminary draft was neatly

typed which includes 75 items in four point rating scale and

administered to 30 engineering students

Ultimately the total number of 75 items was reduced to

55 items for the final draft.

The modification of the final draft was done as per the

opinion and suggestions given by three educational experts so

as to find out the validity of the tool.

Cont….

Cont….The value of co-efficient of the reliability of the tool

through Split-Half Method is found to be 0.87 which is found

to be highly reliable to administer it.

(iv) Administering the Tool

The final draft of the standardised tool was

administered to 150 engineering students from various

colleges of engineering. After collecting the data from the

sample, the master table was prepared.

DATA ANALYSIS

The data was analyzed with appropriate

statistical measures. The data have been

analyzed by SPSS Package (16th version).

The investigators followed Mean, Standard

deviation and ‘t’ test for the analysis of the data.

The results and interpretation of data are

presented in the following tables.

TABLE 1 MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION SCORES ON DIFFICULT ON MATHEMATICS

SUBJECT AMONG THE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE IN TOTAL

S. No CategoryN Mean

Std. Deviation

01. Total 150 61.67 3.80

02. Gender Male 67 61.73 3.98

Female 83 61.61 3.68

03. Locality of Residence Rural 88 61.91 3.46

Urban 62 61.32 4.25

04.Type of Management Government 67 61.19 3.75

Private 83 62.05 3.83

05. Parental Education School 75 61.59 4.02

College 75 61.75 3.61

06. Parental Income Below Rs.20000 72 62.04 3.71

Above Rs.20000 78 61.32 3.88

Table 1 reveals that the obtained Maximum and

Minimum Mean Scores of level of difficult on

Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college are 62.05 and 61.19 and with

respect to SD are 4.25 and 3.46. It is also understood

that Mean and SD scores on the level of difficult on

Mathematics subject in Total are 61.67 and 3.80. It

shows that the level of Mean scores (61.67) of

Difficult on Mathematics subject among the

students of engineering college is found to be

Moderate.

TABLE 2

‘t’ VALUES BETWEEN THE MEAN VALUES ON THE LEVEL OF DIFFICULT ON MATHEMATICS SUBJECT

AMONG THE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE WITH REPECT TO THEIR GENDER

 

GenderN Mean Std. Deviation ‘t’

Level of Significance at 0.05 level

Male 67 61.73 3.98

0.18** NSFemale 83 61.61 3.68

** Not Significant at 0.05 level

Table 2 shows that the ‘t’ value 0.18 is not significant

at 0.05 level. The results show that there is no significant

difference among the Male and Female students of

engineering college towards their level of difficult on

Mathematics subject. Hence, the framed null hypothesis is

found to be accepted.

TABLE 3

‘t’ VALUES BETWEEN THE MEAN VALUES ON THE LEVEL OF DIFFICULT ON MATHEMATICS SUBJECT AMONG THE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE WITH REPECT TO

THEIR LOCALITY OF RESIDENCE

 Locality of Residence N Mean Std. Deviation ‘t’

Level of Significance at 0.05 level

Rural 88 61.91 3.46

0.89** NSUrban 62 61.32 4.26

** Not Significant at 0.05 level

It is understood from the Table 3 that the ‘t’ value 0.89

is not significant at 0.5 level. It is inferred that the Mean values

on the level of difficult on Mathematics subject among the

students of engineering college with respect to locality of

residence is found to be similar. Hence the framed null

hypothesis is found to be accepted.

TABLE 4

‘t’ VALUES BETWEEN THE MEAN VALUES ON THE LEVEL OF DIFFICULT ON MATHEMATICS SUBJECT AMONG THE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE WITH REPECT TO

THEIR TYPE OF MANAGEMENT

 

Type of

management N MeanStd.

Deviation ‘t’

Level of Significance at 0.05 level

Government 67 61.19 3.75

1.37** NSPrivate 83 62.05 3.83

** Not Significant at 0.05 level

It is obviously seen from the Table 4 that the ‘t’ value

1.37 is not significant at 0.5 levels. It is understood from the

results that there is no significant difference between the Mean

values on the level of difficult on Mathematics subject among

the students of engineering college with respect to type of

management. Hence the framed null hypothesis is found to

be accepted.

TABLE 5

‘t’ VALUES BETWEEN THE MEAN VALUES ON THE LEVEL OF DIFFICULT ON MATHEMATICS SUBJECT AMONG THE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE WITH REPECT TO

THEIR PARENTAL EDUCATION

 

Parental

Education N MeanStd.

Deviation ‘t’

Level of Significance at 0.05 level

School 75 61.59 4.02

0.26** NSCollege 75 61.75 3.61

** Not Significant at 0.05 level

The above Table 5 shows that the computed ‘t’ value

0.26 is less than the critical value 1.96 at 0.05 level and hence

it is not significant. The result revealed that the level of

difficult on Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college with respect to their parental education is

found to be similar. Hence the framed null hypothesis is

found to be accepted.

TABLE 6

‘t’ VALUES BETWEEN THE MEAN VALUES ON THE LEVEL OF DIFFICULT ON MATHEMATICS SUBJECT AMONG THE STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING COLLEGE WITH REPECT TO

THEIR PARENTAL MONTHLY INCOME

 

Parental

Income N MeanStd.

Deviation ‘t’

Level of Significance at 0.05 level

Below 20000 72 62.04 3.71

1.16** NSAbove 20000 78 61.32 3.88

** Not Significant at 0.05 level

It is seen from the Table 6 that the ‘t’ value 1.16 is not

significant at 0.05 level. The result shows that there is no

significant difference between the mean values of the students

of engineering college whose parental monthly income below

Rs. 20,000 and the students whose parental monthly income

above Rs. 20,000 towards the Difficult on the Mathematics

subject. Hence the framed null hypothesis is found to be

accepted.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY Difficulties on Achievement in Mathematics among the

engineering students are found to be moderate (Mean

Scores = 61.67).

Both Male and Female students of engineering college in

Dindigul district are having similar levels of difficulties on

achievement in mathematics.

It is inferred that the Mean values on the level of difficult on

Mathematics subject among the students of engineering

college with respect to locality of residence is found to be

similar.

Cont….

Cont….

It is inferred from the findings that Government and Private

engineering students are having similar levels of difficulties

on achievement in Mathematics.

The result revealed that there is similarity towards the level

of difficult on Mathematics subject among the students of

engineering college with respect to their Parental Education.

There is no significant difference between the mean values of

the students of engineering college whose parental monthly

income below Rs. 20,000 and the students whose parental

monthly income above Rs. 20,000 towards the Difficult on

the Mathematics subject.

DISCUSSIONFrom the Descriptive Analysis, it is understood that level of

difficulty in Mathematics subject is found to be moderate.

It is contradictory to the results investigated by Mrinal

Sarma and Majidul Ahmed (2013) .

On analysis of the data through the ‘t’ test, there is no

significant difference in the Mean values on the level of

difficult on Mathematics subject with reference to their

demographic variables such as the Gender, Locality of

residence, Type of Management, Parental Education and

Parental Income .

Cont….

Cont…. But in the case of study conducted by Catherine (2012)

entitled ‘Female interest in Mathematics’ revealed that

there is gender bias i.e. the Female students shows less

interest in mathematics subject than male students.

Nicole (2003) stated that the Female students will perform

at the similar level as the male students when they are

adopted the right educational tools

Cont….

Cont….

Difficult on Mathematics subject among the engineering

students with respect to selected demographic variables are

found to be similar.This may be due to the interrelated factors

like attitude, intellectual skills, self-concept and problem

solving ability which do not have any effect in the selected

demographic variables for the present study.

Foong (1987) reported that the students who dislike

mathematics view their former teachers as intolerant and their

performance is due to the negative attitude of the teachers.

CONCLUSION

Findings of this study would definitely help the

engineering students and teachers to bridge the gap

among various levels of education which involves

mathematics as the subject.

The teaching methodology may be modified with

integration of technology based teaching in the classroom

and more comprehensive the blended learning to be

followed so that the teaching-learning process can be

enhanced.

Cont….

Cont….

For the engineering students Mathematics is a prime factor for

their academic career development. This study shows that

engineering students should require more relevant knowledge

and be able to apply appropriate skills to solve mathematical

problems.

Also the significance of results of the present study

highlighted the teachers have to take extra effort to reduce

the difficulty level on achievement in mathematics by

insisting the repository nature of Mathematics.

To adopt Technology Oriented Method of Instruction in the

classroom to achieve high academic standards in Mathematics

subject.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This study was conducted with co-operation and

support of engineering students and faculty of the

concerned institution to collect the relevant data for

research work.