The influence of socio-economic status,entry style and instructional variables on the learning of mathematics in a neo-literate society

This paper investigates the influence of socio-economic status, entry style and instructional variables on post-secondary mathematics performance of internal and external students at the University of Papua New Guinea. The 1984 and 1985 intakes of Preliminary Year and Matriculation Studies were taken as samples. Six instruments were developed and administered. The data was analysed using techniques of multiple linear regression supported by all possible subsets of regression. Internal and external mature students' achievement in mathematics was mainly related to their entry style and partially to the instructional variables. The socio-economic status variables have no significant influence on it. The internal regular students' mathematics performance showed a stronger link with their socio-economic status than with their entry style while their instructional variables have no significant effect on their achievement. The pattern of results indicates that the performance of students can be more meaningfully grouped based on entry style rather than on mode of instruction.     

Mathematics achievement,language and cognitive development: Classroom practices in Papua New Guinea

A case study was conducted of mathematics instruction at five sites in Papua New Guinea. Trial instructional materials were developed, teachers received inservice training and implementation was carefully monitored for a six-week period. English and mathematics achievement instruments and eight measures of cognitive development were administered to a sample of 201 students in grades two, four and six. Mathematics and language achievement varied significantly among the five sites. Students at all grade levels exhibited poor application of problem solving skills while showing computation, measurement and mathematical language abilities superior to results previously reported. English reading and measures of conservation and classification competence were highly correlated with mathematics achievement. Correlations between memory measures and mathematics achievement decreased from grade two to grade six while correlations between measures of language and cognitive development and mathematics achievement tended to increase. The results indicated that the non-consumable student textbooks ameliorated to some extent the problems associated with non-native language instruction for the students involved in the study. It was concluded that locally developed textbooks with an appropriate language load would enhance mathematics learning, particularly in remote-rural areas where current teaching conditions and lack of materials interact with poor English skills to create an imbalance in achievement.     

Motor Skills and Executive Function Contribute to Early Achievement in East Asia and the Pacific

Research Findings: This study examined the contributions of motor skills and executive function (EF) to early achievement. Participants were 7,797 children (3,889 girls) between 36 and 72 months of age from 6 countries in East Asia and the Pacific. Fine and gross motor skills, EF, language and literacy achievement, and mathematics achievement were evaluated using the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales, a tool that assesses child development in 7 domains. Children’s caregivers provided demographic information. There were 3 salient findings. First, gross and fine motor skills predicted both language and literacy and mathematics achievement. Second, in general, fine motor skills contributed more to the prediction of early achievement than gross motor skills. However, there were no differences between the contributions of fine and gross motor skills to the prediction of early language and literacy in Papua New Guinea or early mathematics in Timor-Leste. Third, EF partially mediated the relation between both early achievement and gross and fine motor skills in the overall sample, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste and fully mediated the association of gross motor skills and early achievement in China, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu. Practice or Policy: Implications of the findings for early childhood education are discussed.     

Sex differences in the learning of post-secondary mathematics in a neo-literate society

This paper investigates the enrollment disparities and sex differences in the learning of post-secondary mathematics course at the University of Papual New Guinea. The 1984 and 1985 intakes of Preliminary Year and Matriculation Studies were taken as samples. Seven instruments were developed and administered. The results showed great disparity in the enrollment of females. The mathematics performance in the middle and over the whole course was compared by using thet-test. There was no significant difference in the mathematics achievement of males and females. The probable reason seems to be the higher SES of female students as they were from comparatively better homes.     

Causal attributions for success and failure in mathematics: A cross cultural perspective

In this study the attributional patterns for success and failure in mathematics of students in Papua New Guinea are compared with those of students in Australia. The sample comprised 491 grade 10 students: 169 girls and 322 boys. While relatively few differences were found in the attributional patterns of boys and girls and of high and low achieving students, there appeared to be substantial differences between students in the two countries in their attributions for success and failure in mathematics. Possible reasons for this are explored in the paper.     

A market outcomes approach to the external efficiency of education: A Papua New Guinea local study

This paper presents and discusses the policy implications of a survey conducted in a Papua New Guinea Highlands town from the point of view of education system external efficiency as measured by market outcomes. The study deals with informal as well as formal sector incomes, and with academic achievement as well as attainment, and attempts to isolate the productivity-enhancing contributions of individual academic subjects at the lower secondary level.     

The impact of a teacher education culture-based project on identity as a mathematically thinking teacher

Identity as a mathematics teacher is enhanced when a teacher explores the cultural setting of their mathematics. The reports of projects that link culture and mathematics were analysed to explore the impact of sociocultural situations together with affective and cognitive aspects of self-regulation on identity. The reports were written by pre-service and in-service, mainly secondary, teachers at the University of Goroka, Papua New Guinea. While all 239 reports were read and considered in terms of the thesis of this article, 60 (25%) were analysed in detail developing the argument. The results indicate the strengths of such projects to take account of cultural knowledge when colonised education systems are further modified through reforms that emphasise culture. The significance for teacher education is the role that an activity which links culture and school mathematics plays in building values and identities.     

Teaching use of formal thought for improved chemistry achievement

Attrition rates from the foundation science programme at the University of Papua New Guinea are high and related to an inability to use formal thought. An intervention measure with marginal students in this foundation course is reported here. This five‐week intensive intervention was intended to assist these marginal students to perform better on formal elements of the chemistry course. Short‐term beneficial effects of intervention were observed but these were not maintained once the intensive programme ceased.     

Language and mathematics: A comparison of bilingual and monolingual students of mathematics

It is argued that bilingual students should not be categorized as a unidimensional group. Their level of competence in each language is important if academic activity is considered. As an example of this, results from the present study indicate that Papua New Guinea bilingual students competent in both their languages scored significantly higher on two different types of mathematical tests compared to collegues who had low competence in their languages. Further, there was some indication that bilingual students competent in both languages performed better than monolingual students, even though the monolingual students attended schools that had many more teaching resources. Such results were seen as support for the new Papua New Guinea govemment policy of using students' original languages in school. The use of the students' original languages may also open the way for easier access to traditional mathematical concepts in classrooms.     

Types of errors made by Papua New Guinean students

This exploratory study used an interview technique to find the frequency of different types of errors which a group of year 6, Papua New Guinean students made on a mathematics test. A further investigation was made into reading, comprehension and careless errors. Although the general trend for errors was the same for western students, some striking differences were found. In particular Papua New Guinean students made far fewer careless errors.     

Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association: ODLAA’s regional predecessor

The Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association (ASPESA) – the predecessor of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, Inc. (ODLAA) – was founded in 1973. From the outset, ASPESA adopted a broader‐than‐Australia focus for open and distance learning that included New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the member countries of the University of the South Pacific. Its interest was firstly on ‘professional’ matters (i.e., an identity for distance education, distance educators, and their professional development). ASPESA forums and workshops spread through various Australian ‘external studies’ institutes and developed the practical and intellectual infrastructure for ASPESA’s aims and objectives.

ASPESA acknowledged its regional and international focus in various ways. The 1981 ASPESA forum was organised jointly by the University of the South Pacific and Massey University, New Zealand, and held in Fiji. Thereafter its regional members played a larger role in ASPESA activities and regional issues appeared on forum agenda. ODLAA and its companion associations around the South Pacific received from their predecessor, ASPESA, a heritage of professionalism and participation in regional and international open and distance learning. In due course, however, differences in distance education environments led New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and then the Pacific island countries to form separate distance education associations, while maintaining links with ASPESA.     

Spatial ability,visual imagery,and mathematical performance

116 Foundation Year Engineering Students, at the University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea, were given a battery of mathematical and spatial tests; in addition, their preferred modes of processing mathematical information were determined by means of an instrument recently developed in Australia by Suwarsono.Correlational analysis revealed that students who preferred to process mathematical information by verbal-logical means tended to outperform more visual students on mathematical tests. Multiple regression and factor analyses pointed to the existence of a distinct cognitive trait associated with the processing of mathematical information. Also, spatial ability and knowledge of spatial conventions had less influence on mathematical performance than could have been expected from recent relevant literature.     

Indigenous knowledge in the science curriculum: avoiding neo-colonialism

Science education in Papua New Guinea has been influenced by neo-colonial practices that have significantly contributed to the silencing of the Papua New Guinea voice. This silencing has led to the production of science curriculum documents that are irrelevant to the students for whom they are written. To avoid being caught up in neo-colonial practices, Western science educators ought to consider the notion of cultural mediators. This position, I argue, infers an obligation to take responsibility for their actions and to consider postcolonial discourses as a way of understanding the relationships and dialogue between different ways of knowing.     

Understanding mathematics achievement: an analysis of the effects of student and family factors

Educators are increasingly recognising the importance of improving students’ mathematics achievement. Much of the current research focuses on the impact of instructional variables on mathematics achievement. The goal of this study was to examine the influence of less researched variables – family and student factors. Participants were 747 economically disadvantaged elementary students grades K-8 in Ohio. Predictor variables included: (a) 13 factors from a parent survey on both child and family circumstances and (b) reading achievement, measured by a norm-referenced achievement test. Outcome variables included three mathematics scales from the same achievement test. Regression analyses examined the impact of the predictors on the outcomes. Reading achievement significantly predicted mathematics achievement for all three outcomes. Parent pessimism and parent-perceived school/cognitive competence of children also emerged as significant predictors for two of the three mathematics outcomes. Implications for research, policy and practice will be shared.     

Relationships of some socio-personal factors to mathematics achievement of secondary school and university students in Bophuthatswana

Poor matriculation mathematics results in Bophuthatswana led us to make exploratory efforts to identify possible non-pedagogical factors responsible for such results. Two small scale studies were carried out to examine relationships of socio-personal variables to mathematics achievement. Study 1 looked into the impact of socioeconomic background, school alienation, sex, self-concept and attitude toward mathematics on mathematics performances of secondary school pupils, while study 2 was aimed at examining relationships of dogmatism and mathematics anxiety to mathematics achievement of first-year university students. The data of these two studies invite the attention of mathematics educators to the importance of attitude toward mathematics, mathematics anxiety, and dogmatism in mathematics achievement of Bophuthatswana secondary school and university students.     

Views on the philosophy of science among undergraduate science students and their tutors at the University of Papua New Guinea: origins,progression, enculturation and destinations

Using a schedule originated by Nott and Wellington to explore science teachers’ views on the philosophy of science, data were gathered at the University of Papua New Guinea. Similarities in response were established for successive first year intakes of science undergraduates (1999–2000). Students with experience in national high schools or Australian high schools responded more positively than their provincial secondary school trained peers to items indicating that the findings of scientific enquiry were universally true. A cross‐sectional analysis showed the undergraduates in the third and fourth years to be more process orientated than the first or second years. Both the first and second years were different in their views compared with their tutors in the relativism–positivism scale, where they were more positivist, the contextualism–decontextualism scale, where they were less decontextualist, and the process–content scale where they were considerably less process orientated. Those with a preferred career destination of medicine were slightly more decontextualist in outlook while being marginally realist, those with a preferred physical science career being very weakly instrumentalist. The results can be interpreted in terms of respondents’ experiences in secondary schooling and on programmes at the University of Papua New Guinea.     

Tongan secondary students’ conceptions of schooling in New Zealand relative to their academic achievement

This study examines the relationship between Tongan students’ attitudes and beliefs towards their school experiences and their academic achievement on the high-stakes National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) assessments in English and mathematics. Data were obtained from using previously published self-reported inventories on a sample of Tongan senior students in New Zealand secondary schools. Confirmatory factor analysis of students’ conceptions found good fit measurement models for each domain (teaching, learning, and assessment). Structural equation modelling was used to identify the effect of the various beliefs upon students’ total score in each subject and upon internal and externally assessed performance. It was noted that different beliefs became statistically significant predictors of performance, depending on the subject and type of assessment. Nonetheless, all three constructs played some role in at least one subject. A small-to-moderate proportion of variance in NCEA performance could be attributed to student beliefs, suggesting that efforts to help students adopt adaptive beliefs will have beneficial consequences for those students.     

近代移民对巴布亚新几内亚发展的影响

巴布亚和新几内亚地区向具有现代意义上的生产生活方式的过渡是伴随着殖民历程的。随着地理大发现,特别是欧洲工业化的开展,探险家、商人、传教士、行政官员纷纷踏足古老的巴布亚和新几内亚大陆,殖民当局的政策在经济、政治、文化、宗教、教育、医疗卫生等多种社会层面上影响了巴布亚和新几内亚的发展,成为其进入资本主义时代的开端。     

Factors influencing early adolescents’ mathematics achievement: High-quality teaching rather than relationships

This study used data from the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning project, which involved data on the academic performance of more than 90,000 New Zealand students in six subjects (i.e. reading, writing and mathematics in two languages). Two sub-samples of this dataset were included for detailed re-analysis to test the general applicability of the Australian model of Quality of School Life (Ainley et al. 1986) in the New Zealand context. The first sample comprised 336 year 8 students from elementary schools and the second sample consisted of 272 year 10 students from high schools. Furthermore, two structural equation models were developed and tested, expressing relationships between students’ quality of school life perceptions, students’ attitudes to mathematics, and their effects on mathematics achievement. The quality of school life questionnaires scales [Ainley and Bourke, in Res Pap Educ 7(2):107–128, 1992] were used as indicators of students’ perceptions regarding learning, teachers and peer relationships. The model proposed that perceived quality of school life would affect students’ attitudes of liking and confidence in mathematics, which would in turn affect their academic performance. After controlling for other variables in the model, students’ perception about their self-efficacy to learn mathematics was more directly related to outcomes than to perceptions of teacher quality or peer involvement. Data analyses revealed no apparent relationships of these factors to mathematics achievement. Moreover, results for both samples led to the conclusion that the perceived quality of learning is connected with ‘confidence in’ and ‘liking mathematics’, which in turn predict students’ mathematics achievement.     

Mathematics Achievement as a Function of Within- and Between-School Differences

Achievement in mathematics of eighth-grade students is modeled as a function of within-school, between-school and cross-country differences. The data were obtained from 217,728 students, within 7,216 secondary schools, in 48 countries, who participated in the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Multilevel analysis showed that out of the total variance in mathematics achievement, 40.39%, 20.61%, and 38.99% were accounted for within-school, between-school-within-country, and cross-country differences, respectively. Mathematics self-concept followed by socioeconomic status was the strongest predictor of achievement at the student level. At the school level, school location yielded the strongest link to achievement, while at the country level socioeconomic status was the main predictor of national mathematics average.