Relationship between Achievement in Mathematics and Problem Solving Ability of High School Students

The home environment refers to the physical, emotional, and psychological atmosphere in which a child grows up. The home environment plays a vital role in shaping a student’s performance in mathematics. National Policy on Education (NPE, 1986) has envisaged that, “Mathematics should be visualized as the vehicle of communication to train a child to think, to reason, to articulate and to analyses logically. It should be treated as a concomitant to any subject involving analysis and synthesis. Different types of problem solving are critical to the discussion of problem solving and student achievement because of the potentially different impact on student achievement. The present study aimed to find out the relationship between achievement in mathematics and problem solving ability of high school students. A sample of 434 high school students was selected for data collection. Achievement Test in Mathematics constructed and validated by the investigators and Home Environment Scale constructed and validated by the investigators. Descriptive and differential analysis for further analysis and interpretation. Findings of the study revealed that High School students’ level of Achievement in Mathematics is average. High School students’ level of Problem Solving Ability is average. There is no significance difference between male and female High school students in their Achievement in Mathematics and Home environment. There is a significance difference between rural and urban High school students in their Achievement in Mathematics. There exist a positive and significant relationship between achievement in mathematics and Home Environment among high school students.