Achievement of Students in Basic Mathematics Operations of Directed Numbers in Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract The study investigated the achievement of students in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of directed numbers (integers). The study was conducted for all public junior secondary schools 2 (JSS 2) mathematics students in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. Two research questions and a null hypothesis guided the study. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 136 junior secondary schools 2 (JSS 2) mathematics students from four (4) public mixed secondary schools. These 136 mathematics students consisted of 71 male and 65 female students. A constructed Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) was used to collect relevant data. This instrument contained 16 short essay questions and students were directed to write the answer only for each question. The Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) was validated by the methods of content validity and construct validity. The reliability of the instrument was tested by the method of Kuder – Richardson formula 21, and its reliability coefficient stood at 0.7219. The 2 research questions were answered by the methods of mean and standard deviation. The only null hypothesis was tested by t-test statistics. The analysis of data indicated that the achievement of students in four basic mathematics operations of directed numbers (integers) previously taught by their teachers was relatively low. The average achievement score fell below pass mark. Therefore, the study recommends that mathematics teachers should exposed their students on how to use the number line to add and subtract, and teach them the basic rules guiding the multiplication and division of directed numbers.