Mathematics Skills as Predictors of Physics Students Performance in Senior Secondary Schools

This paper investigated the predictive influence of mathematics skills (Computation skills, geometry skills, algebra skills, interpretation of graphs and table skills, measuration skills and Probability and statistics skills) on Physics students performance in Senior Secondary Schools in Ado Local Government Area, Ekiti State of Nigeria. The design of this study was an ex-post-factor of survey type. The targeted population for the study was Senior Secondary III (SS III) Physics students of public secondary schools in Ado Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Nigeria. The population of the study was all public Secondary Schools (Physics Students). A simple random sampling technique was used to select twenty (20) Physics students each from the five (5) selected secondary schools from Ado Local Government Area of Ekiti State. A total of One hundred (100) Physics students were used as samples for the study comprises of sixty eight (68) male and thirty two (32) female. Two research questions were generated and were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Among others, the study revealed that; all mathematics skills (Computation skills, geometry skills, algebra skills, interpretation of graphs and table skills, measuration skills and Probability and statistics skills) has strong positive influence and strongly predictive value on physics students performance in Senior Secondary Schools. Conclusion and recommendations were also made in this paper.