Factors Contributing to Students' Poor Performance in a Mathematics Preparatory Program
The quality of instructional design in teaching and learning of mathematics has been one of the major challenges and concerns of educators in any higher educational settings. Recognizing the eloquence of the factors affecting math achievement is particularly important for making the best design decisions. This study, utilizing a mix method approach among 370 randomly selected students (from which 18 were selected for the interviews) was conducted to identify the factors affecting the math achievement of students involved in a college preparatory diploma program where we seek to answer the fundamental question "Is this Mathematics program working?" First, the findings poignantly revealed that students faced great difficulty in the fundamentals of arithmetic and pre algebra. Secondly, majority of the students encountered difficulties in solving word problems as compared to numerical problems in the Mathematics Achievement test. Thirdly, attitude towards mathematics was not an indicator in the seminal determination of student's achievement in mathematics. Finally, the usage and over reliance of calculators among the students plays a role in inhibiting their development of the fundamentals of mathematics learning. In general, the findings surmise that this Mathematics preparatory program specially tailored for students on their pursuit towards diploma courses "is not working" as one would hope so. These students have significant gaps in their mathematical knowledge and it will become incomprehensible for them to move forward. Our concern is that this will inevitably lead to lowering the standards of our graduates for them to be successful. We need to improve the current mathematics program design but one need to note that there are no quick fixes for it.