Pre-SHS Students’ Perception of Difficult Concepts in Junior High School Mathematics Curriculum in Ghana

This study employed the survey research design aimed at investigating difficult concepts in Junior Secondary School mathematics curriculum as perceived by Pre-Senior High School students in Ghana. The study was guided by two research questions and the sample for the study was 70 consisting of 34 females and 36 male students. The instrument used for the collection of data was a 27-item questionnaire tagged Difficult Concept Identification Questionnaire in Mathematics (DCIQM). The data obtained were analyzed using mean with the criterion mean set at 2.1 for identifying difficult topics and 3.9 for identifying possible causes of the perceived difficulty. Test-Retest Reliability (Pearson’s r) of the study was found to be 0.837. The findings of the study revealed that students identified some mathematics topics such as Sets and Operations (X:29>2.1), Real Number System (X2.3>2.1) , Business Mathematics (X:2.2>2.1) , Functions and Mapping (X:3.9>2.1). Ratio and Proportion (X:2.2>2.1) as difficult topics. The highest contributing factor to the perceived difficulty in mathematics was identified as the inability of the students to practice mathematics on their own on regular basis outside lesson hours. Again, students agreed to have developed problems in mathematics from the Primary School. It was also evident from the study that more females perceived mathematics concepts as more difficult than males. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that workshops should be organized to train mathematics teachers on the effective and efficient strategies that should be adopted for the teaching of the identified difficult mathematics concepts.