COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined how cognitive flexibility of senior secondary school students influences their academic performance in Mathematics. The study also looked into the influence of gender and age on the cognitive flexibility of the students. The study employed descriptive research design of the survey type. The population for the study consisted of all senior secondary school students in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A sample of 500 senior secondary school students was selected for the study using multi-stage sampling procedure. The instruments for the study are Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) and Mathematics Cognitive Flexibility Scale (MCS). The content validity of MAT was ascertained by using table of specification to ensure the test’s coverage of the topics in the Mathematics syllabus. The reliability of 0.75 was established using test-retest reliability method. The content validity of MCS was ascertained using Lawshe ratio while its reliability coefficient of 0.76 was established using Cronbach’s Alpha reliability method. Two research questions raised for the study were analysed using frequency count, mean and standard deviation while the three hypotheses postulated for the study were tested using students’ t-test. The result of the study showed that less than half of the students had high performance level in Mathematics and above average of the students had high Mathematics cognitive flexibility level. The result, also, showed that there is significant influence of students’ Mathematics cognitive flexibility on their performance in Mathematics. The study further showed that age had significant influence on the students’ Mathematics cognitive flexibility while gender had no significant influence on students' Mathematics Cognitive Flexibility. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that effort should be made by the Mathematics’ teachers to make Mathematics teaching practical rather than theory and link the topics from simple to complex to concretized the students’ knowledge in the subject thereby improving students’ Mathematics cognitive flexibility. Also, age of the students should be considered while teaching Mathematics especially when complex Mathematical skill is required while Mathematics teaching and learning could be done freely irrespective of students’ gender.

Keyword: Cognitive flexibility, Mathematics, Gender, Age