The purpose of the study is to investigate how well the mathematics
achievement is explained by the students and school related factors. Also, to what
extent students and school related factors components are accounted for students&rsquo / mathematics achievement in answering reasoning level questions and basic
mathematical knowledge questions will be investigated. This study will basically
combine students&rsquo / questionnaires items with their mathematics achievement scores
obtained from mathematics achievement tests items.
According to content and cognitive domains three achievement tests were
prepared from TIMSS-2003 released mathematic items. Student questionnaire
consist of combination of items from TIMSS-2003 and TMSS-1999 student
questionnaires. The seventy six items selected from the students questionnaires were
analyzed using principle component factor analysis and ten interpretable dimensions
were found. Based on the result of the factor analysis, variables were generated by
selecting the observed variables with highest loadings. These variables were: socioeconomic
status, perception of success, teacher centered activities, students centered
activities, out of school activities, out of school activities II, school climate, reason
for being successful in mathematics, homework and computer. The data which is
used in the study gathered from four socially and economically different schools in Ankara and the final sample of the study consisted of 426 elementary school
students. This data was analyzed by using regression analysis.
Regression analysis results indicated that socio-economic status was the
strongest factor explaining mathematics achievement. Other important variables were
the perception of success, use of computers and homework activities. Socioeconomic
status and perception of success have positive relationships with
mathematics achievement, while homework and computer have negative
relationships. These four variables account for the 30.1 % of the variance in
mathematics achievement. Other variables did not significantly contribute to
mathematics achievement in the regression model. Students&rsquo / achievement in basic
mathematical knowledge was explained by the same variables which were socioeconomic
status, perception of success, homework and computer in the same way.
However, achievement in reasoning level explained by socio- economic status,
perception of success and homework. The use of computer factor did not contribute
the achievement in reasoning level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12608199/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 February 2007 |
| Creators | Altun, Aysegul |
| Contributors | Berberoglu, Giray |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for METU campus |
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