Examining Performance of Geometrical Thinking in Mathematics at Secondary School Level in Pakistan

Abstract

Geometrical thinking is important for students to perform well inmathematics as a whole. This study aimed at assessing performance ofgrade 9th students in Geometrical thinking. Furthermore, comparisonamong students in different strata was made like sector wise, gender wiseand location wise. A test of reasoning was administered to a sample ofabove 500 hundred. Sample of the study was taken with proportionateapproach from the whole population. The test was properly validated andreliably checked using SPSS. Factor analysis of the test shows that allitems were statistically aligned with theoretical model. The results showthat the students perform in a variety of ways like performance of privateschools students was significantly better than students of public schools.Similarly, male and urban students performed well than female and ruralstudents respectively. However, the difference between score of thestudents in private and public schools were found significant. Interactionanalysis of gender, rural urban divide shows; that some items showinteraction effect by behaving differently in response to backgroundvariables. It was recommended for further research to replicated thisstudy on different level with tools suitable for their level and also can bebetter conducted using tools that involve diagrammatic reasoning.