Mathematical learning difficulties children faced on worded problems at primary level

to explore the problems of learning mathematics in primary school children and to find out specific areas in Mathematics with which children face problems, and give an opportunity to the text book writers to concentrate on difficult topics in mathematics. Exploratory Considering the literature review with respect to problems in mathematical learning, it was assumed that Children at primary level would face difficulty in solving worded mathematics problems than numerically stated problems. A mixed sample of rural-urban school children was recruited from Jhang District. Results of 400 children [i.e., total marks sheet and mathematics' answer books] out of 1200 children were selected by systematic random sampling technique, for the analysis of errors children made in solving different types of mathematical problems. After categorization of type of errors on the answer sheets of children, frequencies and percentages were calculated for conceptual, procedural and computational errors respectively. findings indicated that most of the children committed conceptual errors on worded problems, which reveal that mostly children's concepts of worded questions in the subject of mathematics were not clear

Influence of gender and socioeconomic status on self-esteem of adolescent students

The purpose of present study is to explore the effects of gender and socioeconomic status on the self-esteem of adolescent students. The sample of the present research was consisted of 450 [225 males and 225 females] adolescents of ages 16-20 years [mean 18.38]. The sample of the study was selected from different public and private educational settings situated in different areas of Karachi, Pakistan. The measures, which were used in the study, included: Demographic data form; and Rosenherg Self-esteem scale. Two-way ANOVA was applied to assess the gender and socioeconomic status differences in self-esteem among adolescents. The results showed that adolescents of lower, middle and upper socioeconomic statuses differed significantly on self-esteem [F [444] =18.85981, p < .01]. Further, there was a significant difference in level of self-esteem of male and female adolescents [F [444]= 23.4486, p<.01]. But interactive effect of gender and socioeconomic status on self-esteem among adolescents was found statistically insignificant [F [444] = 1.411215, p>.05]. It is concluded that the level of self-esteem influenced by SES and gender individually

Flaws in the methods of teaching mathematics

The present study was carried out to explore the flaws in the method of teaching mathematics and to explore the teacher's potential of teaching text book of mathematics. A sample of teachers was taken from district Jhang, selected from the given list of teacher obtained from Assistant Education Officer [Kot Shakir, Jhang North]. Adopting the technique of systematic random sampling, a sample of 40 teachers out of 150 teachers was selected taking every forth teacher from the list. The age range of teachers was 25 - 50 years. The average age was 35 years. Their average experience was 10 years. An interview schedule 'was developed for the purpose of identification of problems of learning mathematics from teachers. The items were pre-planned and semi-structured. It consisted of 20 items, in which 4 were close ended while other 16 question were open ended. The teachers were interviewed on twenty questions, regarding the learning problems of children in mathematics. Important points of the teachers' interview were recorded and later on responses of the teachers' interview were categorized, putting similar responses in the same category. Also, to check the teacher's conceptual clarity of the subject they were observed merely while they were solving mathematics problems. Findings revealed that teacher's concepts about worded problems are not clear. Their way of teaching worded problems was sketchy, short and inappropriate. They didn 't successfully translate the language concepts in to numerical facts. Their concepts are not very clear about worded mathematics problems as compared to computational solutions of mathematical problems

Exploring predictors of compulsive buying behavior among young college/university students

The objective of the present study is to find out the significance of Materialism and self-esteem as the predictors of compulsive buying behavior among young college/university students belongingto middle socioeconomic status. 155 students between the ages of 18 years and 25 years participated in the research, and completed measures of compulsive buying [Edwards, 1993], Material value scale [Richins, 2004] and self-esteem [Rosenberg 1965]. Multiple regression analysis was used to assess the hypothesized relationship of Materialism and self esteem with compulsive buying behavior which yields significant results reflecting Materialism and Self esteem as significant predictors of compulsive buying behavior [R[2] = .113, F [2, 152] = 9.646, p<001]

Gender differences in non verbal reasoning skills

The objective of present study is to investigate the difference between the male and female adolescents on a test ofnon verbal abstract reasoning skills, specifically with reference to age, that is in adolescents of age ranges 12 to 14 years, and in adolescents with age ranges between 15 to 18 years. In the present study 402 adolescent students participated, with age in the range of 12 to 18 years. Among these 402 students 230 were males while 172 were females. Data was obtained with the permission of the authorities from various educational institutes of Rawalpindi and Lahore city. Demographic information was obtained followed by administration of Standard Progressive Matrices, a test ofnon verbal reasoning. Data was analyzed for gender differences by use oft test on .05 level of significance. Results reflect non significant gender differences on non verbal reasoning skills, however, for while distributing data in two groups that is adolescents aged 12 to 14 years, and adolescents aged 15 to 18 years, the difference in the first group was in favor of females, yet not significant. While for the later age group the difference was significant and is in favor of males. The gender differences in non verbal reasoning abilities are subjected to age. Further research considering more age ranges will be more conclusive