{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,20]],"date-time":"2024-09-20T16:46:50Z","timestamp":1726850810070},"reference-count":87,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,23]],"date-time":"2021-04-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1619136000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Appl. Math. Stat."],"abstract":"Poor achievement in mathematics is an issue of great concern for many countries across the globe. Fiji is one of the countries in the South Pacific experiencing the same trends, pressures, and concerns. This study aims to seek the views of stakeholders (students, teachers, heads of departments, and school heads) with regards to the causes of poor achievement in mathematics at the senior grades of secondary schools in the districts of Ba and Tavua, Fiji. A descriptive design using both quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilized whereby data were collected from 201 upper secondary school respondents comprising 171 students, 16 mathematics teachers, 7 department heads, and 7 school heads from seven randomly selected schools in the districts of Ba and Tavua. The study found that the students had a negative attitude toward mathematics. It was also found that an ineffective mathematics curriculum in secondary schools was the reason behind poor performance in the subject. Moreover, many of the primary school teachers lacked potential and competence to teach mathematics at primary school levels, and this largely contributed toward the lack of interest amongst students, hence translating into poor achievement at both upper and lower secondary levels. On the other hand, however, it was gathered that secondary school teachers were rather positive, good quality, performing, and fully qualified as far as the teaching of mathematics and delivery of the subject matter was concerned. Review and amendments to the year 12 and 13 mathematics curriculum, use of technologies to teach mathematics, improving the quality of primary school mathematics teachers, reducing the emphasis on exams, introducing internal assessments, projects, and field work in the mathematics curriculum were a few of the significant recommendations made from this study.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fams.2021.614408","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,23]],"date-time":"2021-04-23T09:36:04Z","timestamp":1619170564000},"update-policy":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["Perceived Causes of Students\u2019 Poor Performance in Mathematics: A Case Study at Ba and Tavua Secondary Schools"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Samlesh","family":"Chand","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Kaylash","family":"Chaudhary","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Avinesh","family":"Prasad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Vishal","family":"Chand","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","first-page":"19","article-title":"Perceived causes of students\u2019 failure in mathematics in kwara state junior secondary schools: implication for educational managers","volume":"6","author":"Suleiman","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int J Educ Stud Math"},{"key":"B2","first-page":"68","article-title":"Factors influencing students\u2019 mathematics performance in some selected colleges of education in Ghana","volume":"3","author":"Enu","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int J Edu Learn Develop"},{"key":"B3","first-page":"71","article-title":"An investigation into the failure rate in mathematics and science at grade twelve (12) examinations and its impact to the School of Engineering: a case study of Kitwe District of Zambia","volume":"5","author":"Kafata","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int J Sci Technol Res"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.15700\/saje.v35n3a1106","article-title":"Factors affecting mathematics achievement of first-year secondary school students in central Uganda","volume":"35","author":"Kiwanuka","year":"2015","journal-title":"S Afr J Educ"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"155","DOI":"10.1080\/15366367.2011.603617","article-title":"Learning progressions provide road maps for the development and validity of assessments and curriculum materials","volume":"9","author":"Krajcik","year":"2011","journal-title":"Meas Interdiscip Res perspective"},{"key":"B6","first-page":"87","article-title":"Factors contributing to students\u2019 poor performance in mathematics at Kenya certificate of secondary education in Kenya: a case of Baringo county, Kenya","volume":"2","author":"Mbugua","year":"2012","journal-title":"Am Int J Contemp Res"},{"key":"B7","first-page":"122","article-title":"Causes of poor performance in mathematics from teachers, parents and student\u2019s perspective","volume":"15","author":"Ali","year":"2016","journal-title":"Am Sci Res J Eng Technol Sci (Asrjets)"},{"key":"B8","first-page":"3","article-title":"Mathematics low achievement in Greece: a multilevel analysis of the programme for international student assessment (PISA) 2012 data","volume":"9","author":"Karakolidis","year":"2016","journal-title":"Themes Sci Technol Edu"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.9790\/7388-04633240","article-title":"The causes of poor performance in mathematics among public senior secondary school students in Azare metropolis of Bauchi State, Nigeria","volume":"4","author":"Sa\u2019ad","year":"2014","journal-title":"J Res Method Edu"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1505","DOI":"10.1007\/s10639-020-10320-2","article-title":"He two perfect scorers for technology acceptance","volume":"25","author":"Reddy","year":"2020","journal-title":"Educ Inf Technol"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.4018\/jitwe.2010010102","article-title":"Experiences in developing a micro-payment system for peer-to-peer networks","volume":"5","author":"Chaudhary","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int J Inf Technol Web Eng"},{"key":"B12","first-page":"53","article-title":"Modelling, verification, and comparative performance analysis of the B.A.T.M.A.N. 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