"quantitative methode in psikology of mathematics education"

AN ANALYIS OF

SELECTED COGNITIVE ABILITIES AND

IT’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

IN MATHEMATICS

The relationship of academic ability to differences in cognitive abilities measured is significant. Consistently, high ability learners, whether based on primary or secondary test scores, significantly outperformed low ability learners on total cognitive ability. According to school subjects, interestingly performance in English and Science is more related to the selected cognitive abilities of students as reflected in the relatively high coefficients reported. It is probable that in these two school subjects, cognitive skills such as deductive thinking and analogical reasoning are encouraged.

Surprisingly, the mechanical comprehension subtest was a poor predictor of performance in the subject Living Skills though it teaches technical elements such as understanding And repairing of household appliances. However, Living Skills also includes non-technical aspects such as commerce which may not be related to mechanical reasoning. The study found that among the school subjects, mathematics reported the highest correlation with spatial ability which is consistent with the findings of Guay & McDanial (1977) and Wong (1992). Overall, academic achievement plays a significant role in influencing the cognitive abilities of students in the sample studied. The higher cognitive abilities of students from high income families suggest that such abilities may be better nurtured in these families. Greater opportunities for the development of such skill may have been made available for learners from such advantaged families through reading materials, thought challenging games and activities and perhaps a generally more conducive environment that encourages such types of thinking.

In terms of gender, males outperformed females in spatial visualisation. This finding is partially consistent with earlier studies wherein females scored lower in spatial ability than their male counterparts. Wong (1992) found that males performed better than females in spatial visualisation and spatial orientation. The present study found gender differences was only for spatial visualisation. In fact, females scored higher in spatial orientation than males though the difference was not significant. Generally, this study reveals that there is evidence for individual differences in cognitive abilities between students in the sample and suggests that the Cognitive Ability Test be administered to a larger sample to detect developmental differences and the establishment of norms.