Impact of Gender Differences on Students’ Performance in Mathematics within Selected Secondary Schools of Gicumbi District, Rwanda

Impact of Gender Differences on Students’ Performance in Mathematics within Selected Secondary Schools of Gicumbi District, Rwanda

Patience Muhawenimana – Centre of Excellence in Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science (ACE-ITLMS), College of Education, University of Rwanda, Rwanda.
Vedaste Mutarutinya – College of Education, University of Rwanda, Rwanda
Email: patiencemuhawenimana99@gmail.com/mutavedik@gmail.com

Abstract: The main objective of this study was to examine the impact of gender differences on students’ performance in mathematics in secondary schools in Gicumbi District, Northern province, Rwanda. The adopted research design was a descriptive survey. The study involved a total of one hundred and three (103) participants, consisting of ninety-seven (97) students and six (6) mathematics teachers from three purposively selected schools by using a simple random sampling method. Quantitative data were analyzed using the statistical package for social science software version 20 (SPSS) employing frequencies, bar charts, percentages, means, standard deviations, and t-tests. Validation of the instruments was done by addressing instruments to the supervisor to check, and peer reading by fellow masters students was used. The table of specification was used to check the content validity for mathematics test and two mathematics teachers of senior five were consulted and their comments were used to improve the instruments for beginning the collection of data. This study revealed that girls score better in mathematics than boys. In the mathematics test, girls achieved an average of 12.42 while boys scored an average of 10.82. This demonstrated that there were large disparities between boys’ and girls’ performance. It was recommended that remedial interventions that emphasize on these differences between boys and girls should be reinforced. Gender bias should not be present in mathematics teaching and assessment methods to help all learners understand that they are able to compete and perform well in the same condition.