Conceptual Understanding, Attitude And Performance In Mathematics Of Grade 7 Students

The study investigated the conceptual understanding, attitude and performance in mathematics of grade 7 students. This study sought to; describe the students� demographic profile, in terms of gender, family income and parent�s educational attainment; determine their level of performance in mathematics; ascertain the level of students� conceptual understanding in mathematics; describe students� attitude towards mathematics; correlate the students� performance in mathematics to students� demographic profile, conceptual understanding, and attitude; and identify which of the variables singly or in combination best predict performance in mathematics. There were 225 grade 7 students in six participant � catholic schools in Valencia City. These schools were all member of Bukidnon Association on Catholic Schools (BUACS). The instruments used were teacher-researcher made test on conceptual understanding in mathematics with two sub-topics, the skills transferring knowledge, and the complete understanding in the language of mathematics; Fennema and Sherman Likert attitude scale; standardized mathematics test for grade 7 adopted from department of education k to 12 curriculum; and a demographic profile sheet. Results revealed that: students� demographic profile by gender showed that there were more females than males, almost three parts of the total population had finished the college category and half of the total population belongs to the poverty line. Students� performance in mathematics belongs to the range of approaching to proficiency which implies moderate or in the average level of learning. For the overall students� level of conceptual understanding in mathematics, the result described as approaching to proficiency meaning moderate. The students� attitude towards mathematics overall mean rated as uncertain implies further that students were neutral with regards to their attitude towards mathematics, they are fair. Students� performance in mathematics did not relate significantly to respondents demographic profile, and conceptual understanding in mathematics. Students� attitude towards mathematics and conceptual understanding in mathematics were found the best predictors of students� performance in mathematics.

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