Mathematics is a subject that is widely applied in solving science problems. There has been an argument that to perform well in sciences, one must also perform well in mathematics. In the light of this assertion, this paper studied the correlation between mathematics and science subjects’ achievements in secondary schools. Two science subjects, physics and chemistry were considered. The study used certificate of secondary education examination results for basic mathematics, physics and chemistry subjects of 229 students from three secondary schools located in Arusha, Tanzania. The schools were chosen based on performance ranks, high performing school, medium performing school and relatively low performing school. The results were for the year 2020. The grades were coded using the scale A – 1, B – 2, C – 3, D – 4, and F – 5. Scatter diagrams and correlation analysis approaches were used to arrive at the conclusion. The study found that there is a moderate positive relationship between mathematics achievements and physics achievements in least performing schools, meaning that students with good performance in mathematics are expected to perform better in physics. On the other hand, the study found a weak positive relationship between mathematics achievements and physics and chemistry achievements in high performing school. The study proposes that performance in mathematics should not be a criterion for selecting students to study science subjects. The results may be useful to educators responsible for selecting students for further studies in science subjects.
| Published in | Applied and Computational Mathematics (Volume 11, Issue 3) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12 |
| Page(s) | 69-73 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Correlation Analysis, Correlation Coefficient, Coded Grade, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry
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APA Style
Vicent Paul Nyakyi, Amon Mwenda. (2022). A Correlation Study of Mathematics and Science Subjects Achievements in Secondary Schools. Applied and Computational Mathematics, 11(3), 69-73. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12
ACS Style
Vicent Paul Nyakyi; Amon Mwenda. A Correlation Study of Mathematics and Science Subjects Achievements in Secondary Schools. Appl. Comput. Math. 2022, 11(3), 69-73. doi: 10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12,
author = {Vicent Paul Nyakyi and Amon Mwenda},
title = {A Correlation Study of Mathematics and Science Subjects Achievements in Secondary Schools},
journal = {Applied and Computational Mathematics},
volume = {11},
number = {3},
pages = {69-73},
doi = {10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.acm.20221103.12},
abstract = {Mathematics is a subject that is widely applied in solving science problems. There has been an argument that to perform well in sciences, one must also perform well in mathematics. In the light of this assertion, this paper studied the correlation between mathematics and science subjects’ achievements in secondary schools. Two science subjects, physics and chemistry were considered. The study used certificate of secondary education examination results for basic mathematics, physics and chemistry subjects of 229 students from three secondary schools located in Arusha, Tanzania. The schools were chosen based on performance ranks, high performing school, medium performing school and relatively low performing school. The results were for the year 2020. The grades were coded using the scale A – 1, B – 2, C – 3, D – 4, and F – 5. Scatter diagrams and correlation analysis approaches were used to arrive at the conclusion. The study found that there is a moderate positive relationship between mathematics achievements and physics achievements in least performing schools, meaning that students with good performance in mathematics are expected to perform better in physics. On the other hand, the study found a weak positive relationship between mathematics achievements and physics and chemistry achievements in high performing school. The study proposes that performance in mathematics should not be a criterion for selecting students to study science subjects. The results may be useful to educators responsible for selecting students for further studies in science subjects.},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - A Correlation Study of Mathematics and Science Subjects Achievements in Secondary Schools AU - Vicent Paul Nyakyi AU - Amon Mwenda Y1 - 2022/05/19 PY - 2022 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12 DO - 10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12 T2 - Applied and Computational Mathematics JF - Applied and Computational Mathematics JO - Applied and Computational Mathematics SP - 69 EP - 73 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-5613 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acm.20221103.12 AB - Mathematics is a subject that is widely applied in solving science problems. There has been an argument that to perform well in sciences, one must also perform well in mathematics. In the light of this assertion, this paper studied the correlation between mathematics and science subjects’ achievements in secondary schools. Two science subjects, physics and chemistry were considered. The study used certificate of secondary education examination results for basic mathematics, physics and chemistry subjects of 229 students from three secondary schools located in Arusha, Tanzania. The schools were chosen based on performance ranks, high performing school, medium performing school and relatively low performing school. The results were for the year 2020. The grades were coded using the scale A – 1, B – 2, C – 3, D – 4, and F – 5. Scatter diagrams and correlation analysis approaches were used to arrive at the conclusion. The study found that there is a moderate positive relationship between mathematics achievements and physics achievements in least performing schools, meaning that students with good performance in mathematics are expected to perform better in physics. On the other hand, the study found a weak positive relationship between mathematics achievements and physics and chemistry achievements in high performing school. The study proposes that performance in mathematics should not be a criterion for selecting students to study science subjects. The results may be useful to educators responsible for selecting students for further studies in science subjects. VL - 11 IS - 3 ER -
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