Determinants of Students' Logical Reasoning and Mathematics Achievement

Abstract

This study examined the determinants of students’ logical reasoning and mathematics achievement. Three factors; age, sex and class level were viewed as determinants of students’ logical reasoning.  Ex-post-facto research design was used for the study and the sample size was 420 senior secondary school students in Olamaboro Local Government Area of Kogi State-Nigeria. Three research questions were raised and three hypotheses also stated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The instrument used for data collection was “Mathematical Reasoning Test (MRT)” developed by the researchers and validated by two mathematics Educators and one measurement and evaluation lecturer. The reliability of the instrument was determined using inter-rater approach and kendall’s coefficient of concordance statistic gave .84. Data was analysed using t-test and analysis of variance.  The findings revealed among others that; age and class levels determine students’ logical reasoning in mathematics. It was recommended that age and class level should be given serious recognition in planning and organizing the mathematics curriculum.