Developing a Study Orientation Questionnaire in Mathematics for primary school students

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Developing diagnostic tools for mathematics education is crucial in South Africa.
• Primary school students' orientation towards mathematics impacts academic success.
• Existing measures may not adequately address the specific needs of South African learners.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Study Orientation Questionnaire in Mathematics (Primary).
• To identify key factors influencing primary school students' mathematics achievement.
• To provide a diagnostic tool for teachers and counsellors to improve mathematics study orientation.

Main Methods:

• Standardisation of the Study Orientation Questionnaire in Mathematics (Primary) with 1,013 primary school students in South Africa.
• Factor analysis to determine the underlying structure of the questionnaire.
• Reliability and item-factor correlation analyses.
• Step-wise linear regression to predict mathematics achievement.

Main Results:

• Factor analysis identified three significant factors: Mathematics anxiety, Study attitude in mathematics, and Study habits in mathematics.
• Satisfactory reliability coefficients and item-factor correlations were obtained.
• These three factors significantly predicted mathematics achievement (R2 = .194).

Conclusions:

• The Study Orientation Questionnaire in Mathematics (Primary) is a reliable and valid diagnostic tool.
• Mathematics anxiety, study attitude, and study habits are significant predictors of mathematics achievement in primary school students.
• The questionnaire can aid educators in addressing students' orientation towards mathematics study.