Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

Bonnie B. Mullinix

Abstract

Mathematics achievement is a key component of student overall academic achievement. However, many students from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Vincentian students) continue to perform poorly on the regional Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) mathematics examination. This poor mathematics performance is a concern for education stakeholders. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to explore the extent to which the CSEC mathematics scores of high-scoring Vincentian students versus low-scoring Vincentian students in the cognitive domains of knowledge, comprehension, and reasoning differ across the content domains of algebra; geometry; measurement; statistics; and relations, functions, and graphs (RFG). The theoretical foundation for the study was Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. The study used a cross-sectional design and archival data. The sample was composed of 370 students. Two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and follow-up 2-way analysis of variance were computed to provide answers to the research question. Based on the MANOVA, there was a statistically significant interaction effect between levels of knowledge and levels of reasoning for measurement scores. Additionally, there were significant main effects for each cognitive domain and algebra, geometry, measurement, and RFG. The findings of the study contribute to positive social change by providing teachers, administrators, and education policy makers in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with insights into the influence of cognitive abilities on student mathematics achievement so that they could identify students who may be at risk for learning difficulties in mathematics and better plan intervention strategies for remediation.

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