Research Papers
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RESEARCH PAPERS ASSESSING GENERAL INTELLIGENCE IN INFLUENCING PERFORMANCE OF MATHEMATICS By R. RAJKUMAR * G. HEMA ** * Research Scholar, Department of Education, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. ** Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. Date Received: 04/05/2018 Date Revised: 26/06/2018 Date Accepted: 16/07/2018 ABSTRACT Academic achievement is very important in any educational setting, as it indicates the level of students' competence in respect of the academic content. This is obviously defined in terms of performance which represents the most understandable and regularly accepted pointer of performance in educational contexts (Ladipo & Gbotosho, 2015). Intelligence influences our ability on all level of intellectual tasks. Generally, people who are good at mathematics associate intelligence with it. Not everybody, but majority think on these lines. For them, being good at mathematics is an important criteria for being general intelligent. This study investigated the extent to which general intelligence determine the performance in mathematics among undergraduate students. The investigator used random sampling technique for selecting the sample from the population. The sample consists of 310 students studying undergraduate mathematics in Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu, India. Standardized tool namely Test of General Intelligence (TGI) for College Students by Misra and Pal was used and its reliability value was 0.81. The data collected were subjected to statistical techniques like t - test and F-test. Further analysis showed that majority of the undergraduate mathematics students had moderate level of general intelligence. Findings on relationships between general intelligence and performance of undergraduate mathematics students are positively correlated. The study recommended that the performance of study groups should be formed in the college to help in cooperative learning of outperformed students than male students. Since these groups will also help the weaker students to enhance the performance in their subjects. Keywords: General Intelligence, Undergraduate Mathematics Students, Mathematics, Academic Performance, Influence. INTRODUCTION instrument of all physical researches. Gauss says Intelligence is acknowledged by all teachers that one of mathematics is the queen of sciences and arithmetic is the most important single variable which affects the queen of all mathematics. According to Bacon, schooling is the quality of behavior called intelligence. In mathematics is the gateway and key to all sciences which psychology literature, intelligence has been treated as a means mathematics is the science of number and construct; no one knows what intelligence is. Several space. Aristotle in his view about mathematics is the study definitions have been advanced by psychologists but no of quantity (Mangal, 2016; Zubair, 2012). two psychologists agree on a single definition of the term 1. Significance of the Study (Mangal, 2011). Stern (2009) stated that intelligence is a The human mind does not record sense experience general capacity of an individual consciously to adjust directly, but rather it registers and selectively documents a his/her thinking to new requirement. It is the general highly processed and meaning-centered version of mental adaptability to new problems and conditions of experience. Conventional beliefs about intelligence life. Kant says mathematics is the indispensable have too long been oppressors of the human spirit and i-manager’s Journal on Educational Psychology, Vol. 12 l No. 1 l May - July 2018 19 RESEARCH PAPERS antagonists of self-esteem and human potential. It is now college, nature of the management, locality of the time to see intelligence as a liberator as a marvelously rich college, and types of the family. entity that help explain the individuality of our species. It is 3. Hypotheses Formulated to see possibilities for human expression as rolling forward The following hypotheses are formulated based on the indefinitely, proceeding in pleasing directions possibilities objectives. whose hazy outlines we can barely perceive (Martinez, ·The level of general intelligence of undergraduate 2000). May be each of us possess a certain amount of mathematics students is average. goal in general. ·The level of performance of undergraduate Research in cognitive development has led to mathematics students is average. understanding of basic processes involved in academic There is no significant difference, if any, in general skills, like reading and mathematics problem-solving. · intelligence of undergraduate mathematics Mathematics has great cultural values; it has helped in students with regard to background variables. transmitting and enriching our culture. It has helped in the development of various subjects and occupations. It is ·There is significant difference, if any, in performance mainly responsible for the progress of our civilization and it of undergraduate mathematics students with regard has been rightly said, “mathematics is the mirror of to background variables. civilization”. It has helped man in bringing him to the ·There is no significant relation between general advanced stage of development. Having the doubt intelligence and performance of undergraduate whether the performance of the Undergraduate students mathematics students. of mathematics is attributed by their intelligence, the 4. Research Methodology investigator took this study. 4.1 Method 2. Objectives of the Study The method adopted in the present study is survey In the present study, the following objectives are framed to method which comes under descriptive research. measure the assessing general intelligence in influencing 4.2 Sample performance of mathematics among undergraduate The sample of the study consists of the students studying mathematics students. undergraduate mathematics. The investigator selected To identify the level of general intelligence of · 310 students from 10 Colleges who are studying in undergraduate mathematics students. undergraduate mathematics in Tirunelveli district, Tamil ·To identify the level of performance of undergraduate Nadu, India, and followed stratified random sampling mathematics students. technique. The sample consists of male and female ·To find out the significance of difference, if any, in undergraduate mathematics students. general intelligence of undergraduate mathematics 4.3 Tool Used students with regards to background variables. The present study was designed to assess the general ·To find out the significance of difference, if any, in intelligence and performance in the subject performance of undergraduate mathematics mathematics among undergraduate students. General students with regards to background variables. Intelligence Scale was developed and standardized by ·To find out the correlation between general Misra and Pal which contains 60 items. Its reliability value intelligence and performance of undergraduate was 0.81 (Misra & Pal, 1971). mathematics students. 5. Data Analysis The background variables are gender, age, nature of the The collected data were analyzed by using statistical 20 i-manager’s Journal on Educational Psychology, Vol. 12 l No. 1 l May - July 2018 RESEARCH PAPERS techniques, like mean, standard deviation, t-test, F test, that there is a significant difference in general intelligence and Correlation. of undergraduate mathematics students with regard to From Table 1 it is inferred that more than 69% of age and nature of management. undergraduate mathematics students have moderate It shows that the undergraduate mathematics students level of general intelligence. aged below 19 have more general intelligence than In Table 2, since p value is greater than 0.05, the null those aged 19 and above. Further, it shows that the hypothesis is accepted at 5% level of significance. It undergraduate mathematics students of government shows that there is no significant difference in general college have more general intelligence than the students intelligence of undergraduate students with regard to of aided and self-finance college. gender, locality of the college, and type of family. From Table 4 it is inferred that more than 71% of In this table, since p value is less than 0.05, the null undergraduate mathematics students have moderate hypothesis is rejected at 5% level of significance. It shows level of performance. that there is a significant difference in general intelligence In Table 5, since p value is greater than 0.05, the null of undergraduate mathematics students with regard to hypothesis is accepted at 5% level of significance. It nature of the college. shows that there is no significant difference in the Further, the mean scores show that students of Women’s performance of undergraduate students with regard to college has more general intelligence than the students locality of college and type of family. from co-education college. In this table, since p value is less than 0.05, the null In Table 3, since p value is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected at 5% level of significance. It shows hypothesis is rejected at 5% level of significance. It shows that there is significant difference in the performance of undergraduate students with regard to gender and General Intelligence N % Background Groups Sum of Square df Mean Square F p value Low 57 18.4 Variables Moderate 216 69.7 Age Between 347.415 2 173.708 Groups 4.742 0.009* High 37 11.9 With in 11245.879 307 36.632 Groups