INFLUENCE OF SEX DIFFERENCES ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN MATHEMATICS IN EDO STATE

Abstract

This study examined sex differences and senior secondary school two students' academic performance in Mathematics in Edo State. The study was guided by one research question and one corresponding null hypothesis. The design used was correlational research design. The sample for the study was 300 SSII students. The instrument used for data collection was Mathematics achievement test. The instrument was validated by five experts and the
reliability of the instrument was determined by the use of Pearson product moment correlation with a reliability index of 0.70. The data were collected by administering the instrument to respondents with the help of five research assistants. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions and the null hypotheses were tested using t-test for two independent sample means. The result showed
that the mean performance of the male students in Mathematics was higher than that of the female students, also it was discovered that gender of the secondary school had effect on the students' performance in Mathematics in Edo State of Nigeria. It was recommended that Mathematics teachers in general should take into consideration the male female gender and try to encourage and assist the female students to enable them benefit maximally from their Mathematics instruction in class. In effect, Mathematics teaching should be gender positive.