Study Of Academic Achievement In Mathematics Of 10^th Class Students In Relation to Self-Concept and Intelligence

Mrs Aseem Mohan

                          Assistant Professor

Cosmos College of Education

ABSTRACT

One of the man’s aims of education is to excel in various subjects taught during the process of education. To excel academically, it is foremost for the child to realize and believe in his capabilities and secondly to adjust to the changing needs and perceptions of the whole system. The importance of academic achievement has raised several important questions for educational researchers. Researchers have been trying hard to identify all the possible correlations which can affect academic achievements significantly. The researcher found that both intelligence and self-concept are important for better academic achievement as well as for the success and adjustment in academic and social life.

KEY WORDS : Academic Achievement, Mathematics, Self-Concept, Level Of Intelligence.

INTRODUCTION

John Dewey says, “Education must begin with a psychological insight into child’s capacities, interests and habits.”

The psychological side is the starting point of all education, it is important to understand the psychology of child in his interests, attitude, aptitude, self-concept, adjustment etc. The people and government of India have greatly realized the importance of education. An uneducated person stands nowhere in the modern life. Education is, therefore, must for all round development of children.

In modern scientific and technical, world education plays a vital role. The educational advancement of a country shows its pace of development, overall development of country lies in its optimum use of human resources. Education is the greatest source of social regeneration and revitalization. In today’s competitive world, man has to struggle in any field to achieve something. The Struggle for the success starts from the school age to be an achiever. Education is the basic tool for the development of human being. We are living in 21st century, an age known for the remarkable progress in science and technology. This progress has also made life extremely fast and increased the aspiration of individuals. Everyone wants to succeed, and so competitiveness is on the increase in every field. Parents as well as teachers attach a lot of importance to academic achievement of the students. This is because high achievement in academics is considered to be a passport of success in life. Today the major aim of education is the all round development of the child which includes intellectual, physical, spiritual, social and personal growth. It is the prime responsibility of any education system to prevent wastage and failure and ensure proper academic achievement and attitude towards different subjects of students to promote their wholesome school growth and development.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem of the study is stated as “Study Of Academic Achievement In Mathematics Of 10^th Class Students In Relation to Self-Concept and Intelligence.”

Academic Achievement -- Academic is an activity or action that is scholastic in nature and ‘Achievement’ is the level of proficiency attained in scholastic or academic work.

Good (1973) referred to academic achievement as, “Knowledge attained or skill developed in the school subjects, usually designated by test scores or marks assigned by the teacher.”

Intelligence -- Intelligence is the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge. Freeman (1962) emphasizes three dimensions of intelligence, namely -- Ability to adapt or adjust , Ability to learn and Ability to carry out abstract thinking. Basic intelligence is inherited, though its development into a functional capacity is largely a matter of environmental influences. It includes learning ability and ability to utilize symbols and abstraction. Intelligence is not a single or simple faculty but a compound of various elements.

Self-Concept -- ‘Self-Concept’ can be generally understood as a person’s idea feelings and attitude about oneself i.e. HOW ONE PERCIEVES ONESELF. In simple words, self concept refers to ‘the general idea we have of our self’. It includes an individual’s attitude and beliefs on perceptions regarding their physical, emotional, social aspect.

Self-Concept is perceived as having 3 components as Perceptual, Conceptual and Attitudinal .

Good (1973), self concept is defined as “the individual’s perception of himself as a person, which includes his abilities, appearance, performance in his job and other phases of daily living.”

Taneja (1989), “Self concept refers to the picture or image a person has of himself.”

Thus, self concept may be briefly defined as the views that a person holds regarding himself – his abilities, his feelings, his values and possessions. It is an influential factor in individual’s behavior, his actions and interaction in different social conditions.

LITRATURE OF REVIEW    

The investigator has found different viewpoints emerging from the literature as:

• Grown (1955), Marjorie (1967), Sandhu (1985) and Gakhar (1986) have found that superior intelligence was associated with high academic achievement.
• Self-Concept and academic achievement are also positively correlated as empirically found by the studies of Renbarger (1969), Kulshreshtha (1983), Kumari (1990), Pareek¹⁶ (1990).
• Willams (1991) studied that effect of self-concept on high school students academic achievement. The result of this study showed that the functions of Self-Concept are independent and additive.
• B. Lawrence (1992) outlined the theories of self-concept and examined the relationship between self esteem and body image stating that physical handicapped individual affects the learning effectiveness of the handicapped individual and diminishes the degree of self-concept experience. It was, shown that other people’s perception affects one’s self-conception; e.g. unfavorable appraisal may create anxiety or negative Self-Concept.

IMPORTANCE OF THE PROPOSED WORK

Since result of earlier studies are contradictory in nature. So, investigator tried to ponder further in the present involving context. We are living in 21^st century. It is an era of competition, technology development and new challenges. It has been found that persons having higher intelligence, reasoning ability and self-concept can solve complex problems quickly than others. The importance of Academic Achievement has raised several important questions for educational researchers. Researchers have been trying hard to identify all the possible correlations of academic achievement while going through the related literature, the researcher found that Level of Intelligence and Self-Concept are two possible correlates which can affect Academic Achievements significantly. Motivated by the above considerations the investigator has undertaken the present study to know the effect of Scientific Attitude, Intelligence, and Self-Concept on Academic Achievement among senior secondary students.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

The proposed research implies that there should be a significant relationship of cause-effect nature between the Intelligence and Self-Concepts of students and their Academic Achievement. This presumption may be considered to be sufficiently justified when viewed in psychological perspective. This is a psychological fact that no human behavior just happens. Psychologically every human behavior has a cause and is motivated. The achievement is considered by psychologists a form of students must be a function of certain psychological factors. Among many of these factors the Intelligence & Self-Concept of the students may be considered most important.

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

Only null hypotheses were formulated for this study like: There is no significant correlation of academic achievement with self-concept and intelligence; There exists no significant difference in academic achievement in mathematics among male and female students; government and private schools; There exists no significant difference in academic achievement in mathematics among male and female students of government school and private schools & There exists no significant difference in academic achievement in mathematics among male students of government and private schools; among female students of government and private schools.

METHODOLOGY                                            

The ex-post-facto method was used for the study. A sample of 200 students of 9th class was selected using systematic sampling procedure. Tools used in the study were Achievement scores in mathematics, Jalota’s General Mental Ability Test to assess intelligence and Self-Concept questionnaire by Dr. R.K. Saraswat. Simple statistical techniques as central tendencies, measures of deviation, Coefficient of Correlation and significant difference i.e. t- Ratios were calculated.

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

• There is a substantial relationship between academic achievement in mathematics and level of intelligence.
• There existed a positive relationship between academic achievement in mathematics and self-concept. But the value of 'r' is low.
• There existed no significant difference in academic achievement in mathematics among male and female students.
• There existed a little difference in academic achievement in mathematics among government and private schools. Students of private school have a bit better achievement in mathematics than their counterparts in government schools.
• There exists no significant difference in academic achievement in mathematics among male and female students of government school.
• There exists significant difference in academic achievement in mathematics among male and female students of private schools, because male students have high achievement in mathematics than the female students of private schools.
• There exists significant difference in academic achievement in mathematics among male students of government and private schools, because male students of private schools have more achievement in mathematics than their counterparts in government schools.
• There exists significant difference in academic achievement in mathematics among female students of government and private schools, because female students of private schools have more achievement in mathematics than their counterparts in government schools.

CONCLUSION

From the given research researcher concluded that:

• There exists substantial positive correlation between achievement in mathematics & level of intelligence.
• There exists low positive correlation between achievement in mathematics & self-concept.
• There exists no significant difference regarding achievement in mathematics between male and female students.
• There exists difference among students of government and private schools regarding achievement in mathematics.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FURTHER STUDY

When researcher have done this study she thought that there should be some studies like correlation between academic achievement in mathematics and some other variable, correlation between intelligence and self-concept, study can be done by increasing the no. of variables or increasing sample or taking some other class, comparative study can also be taken on students of different blocks, tehsils & districts.

REFERENCES

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