The influence of gender on performance in mathematics in in the foundation phase: the perceptions of selected teachers in a specific school

Abstract

The thrust of this article is to ascertain whether gender had any significant influence on performance in the subject mathematics. This is study was conducted on a small scale in a specific school and involved the views and perceptions of a few purposively selected teachers. Although the study is small in size, its results have however huge implications regarding how girls and boys perform in the subject mathematics. The approach was qualitative and was based within the constructivist and interpretivist paradigms. Interviews were conducted with the few teachers who had experience in teaching learners of the foundation phase mathematics over a numbers of years. The research findings of this study and coupled with those gleaned from the literature reviewed for this study attest to the view that girls are less interested in the subject mathematics than boys. The study makes interesting discussions and recommendations as a way forward. Again, the study has suggested strategies to encourage girls to do mathematics so as to improve their chances of following career options in engineering, accounting, medicine, technology and so on.

Keywords: Influence, gender, performance, mathematics, foundation phase, perceptions, and teachers