A Study of the Factors that Cause Lower Performance in Grade 11 Mathematics: A Study Conducted in the Gampaha District

Abstract

This study was done to find the factors that affect the poor mathematics performance of the Grade 11 students in the Gampaha district of Sri Lanka. To do this, the best-performing and the poor-performing zones in the Gampaha district were selected and a school was selected from each zone through simple random sampling. The data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. Thirty grade 11 students were selected at random from each school as the sample. Five students from each school were interviewed and 25 students from each school responded to the questionnaire. The major findings of the study were poor student-teacher interactions, no practice in solving sums, lack of basic knowledge, low motivation in students, and no instructional materials were used by the teachers when teaching. Therefore, the findings suggest that the teachers should be advised and trained on the ways to maintain good interactions with the students and on the ways of using instructional materials to deliver lessons. Moreover, workshops can be held to revise the basic knowledge. The parents and the teachers can be advised through workshops on the ways that they can motivate the students to learn mathematics and the ways that they can make the students practice more.