Students’ Characteristics and Academic Performance in Mathematics

Many researchers have investigated the causes of students’ poor academic performance in general. However, the extent to which students’ individual characteristics affect their academic performance in mathematics has received little academic attention. This was the gap in literature the study sought to fill. The study adopted a convergent parallel mixed methods design involving three hundred and seventy-two (372) respondents in Sagnarigu Municipality of Northern Region, Ghana who were sampled through Simple Random Sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Questionnaire and interview guides were used to collect primary data. The analysis of the collected data revealed that: willingness to learn mathematics, perceptions that mathematics is a difficult subject, readiness for the use of mathematics teaching and learning materials available, relationship with mathematics teachers and attentiveness in mathematics lessons all affected students’ academic performance in mathematics. It is therefore recommended that the various school management bodies could work with the Guidance and Counselling units to provide some form of support for students who are fearful of mathematics.