Assessing Senior Secondary School Students’ Mathematical Proficiency as Related to Gender and Performance in Mathematics in Nigeria

The studyinvestigated mathematical proficiency as related to gender and performance inmathematics among 400 Nigerian senior secondary school students from 10 elitistsenior secondary schools in Lagos State using the quantitative research methodwithin the blueprint of descriptive survey design. Data collected were analysedusing the descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, mean, and standarddeviation and inferential statistics of independent samples t-test, andmultiple regression analysis. Findings revealed that senior secondary schoolstudents from the elitist schools showed high level of mathematicalproficiency. There were significant possible correlations among seniorsecondary school students’ conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategiccompetence, adaptive reasoning, productive disposition and performance inmathematics. While gender differences in mathematical proficiency are no longerimportant and are dissipating even at the subscale level there are subtlegender differences in performance in mathematics in this study. Gender,conceptual understanding, productive disposition, adaptive reasoning, strategiccompetence and procedural fluency made statistically significant contributionsto the variance in senior secondary school students’ performance inmathematics. Based on this base line study, it was thus, recommended thatfuture studies in Nigeria should investigate the mathematical proficiency ofnon-elitist schools which dominated the length and breadth of this country soas to generalize the results of this study.