An Assessment of Different Educational Background of Students Performance in Engineering Mathematics and on the Class of Award obtained at the Higher National Diploma (HND) Level at Cape Coast Polytechnic, Ghana.

Abstract

The purpose of this research article is to find out an assessment of different educational background of students performance in engineering mathematics and on the class of award obtained at the Higher National Diploma (HND) level at Cape Coast Polytechnic. A descriptive survey was conducted on students of the Electricals/Electronics Department who graduated in each year from 2007 to 2011. A sample of ten (10) students was randomly selected from those who graduated with SSS, and ten (10) from Non-SSS background, constituting a total of twenty (20) students from each graduation year. In all, one hundred (100) graduated students were selected from 2007 to 2011 for the study. A secondary data consisted of information on student’s Department entry requirement, class assessment result, end-of-semester examination result for engineering mathematics and the class of award obtained were collected from the department. Correlation coefficient (Pearson’s product moment) was used for the analysis. The study revealed that the students’ educational background of study has effect on their performance in Engineering Mathematics, and also on the class of award obtained.

Key words: Correlation coefficient, Higher National Diploma (HND), Performance in Engineering Mathematics.