A comparative study to examine mathematics achievement of science and non-science High School students on the Odi Region of Bophuthatswana

Abstract

This study compares the mathematics achievement of some science and non-science high school students. The aim of the study was to examine whether the mathematics performance scores of students in science high schools are significantly higher than those of their counterparts in non - science high schools. It was also examined to what extent mathematics performances of high school students relate to their socioeconomic background, math self - efficacy and attributional beliefs. Students from a science school and a non-science school served as subjects. The above stated variables were measured by already established scales. Analysis of results revealed that generally the mathematics performance scores of science high school students were not significantly higher than those of their counterparts in a non-science high school. Math performance scores were not found consistently related to other variables (socioeconomic background, math self - efficacy, math confidence and attributional beliefs). The absence of differences in mathematics performance scores between the science high school and non-science high school students may be attributed to the fact that the science high schools, have recently been established. At the time of this study it was their second year of existence.