The Effect of Setting Academic and Behavioural Goals on the Performance of Students in Mathematics at the University of Namibia Science Foundation Programme

Abstract

This study intended to find the effect of setting academic and behavioural goals in the Science Foundation Programme (SFP) of the University of Namibia. In this study foundation students had to set academic and behavioural goals they intended to maintain in order to improve their mathematics performance but the reference was test 1 which was written without set goals. The study sort to find out the effects of setting academic and behavioural goals, classroom factors that need to be fulfilled in the setting of goals so as to improve the mathematics performance of students in the Science Foundation Programme at Oshakati UNAM Campus. This study used the quantitative research design. In order to assess the students’ current academic level in mathematics, all students did not set goals for assessment Test 1, but started from assessment test 2 until assessment test 4 for the 2013 academic year. A quasi-experimental design was adopted in this study where the control group had 46 participants and the experimental group had 80 participants. At the end of the goals setting process the experimental group completed a questionnaire with open-ended and closed ended questions to add to the information collected from the goal sheets. Findings of this research study showed that the use of academic and behavioural goals significantly improved the mathematics performance of the students. The alternative hypothesis which stated that the experimental group would perform significantly better than the control group was accepted at 95% level of significance. This study also established that some factors such as students’ level of competence should be taken into consideration and that specific teaching methods should be used in order to get maximum results in a goal-oriented classroom environment. It was concluded that the setting of academic and behavioural goals significantly improved the performance of the Science Foundation Programme students at the Oshakati UNAM Campus. Therefore, it is important for teachers of mathematics in the same educational settings to implement the setting of academic and behavioural goals among their students as a way of improving the students’ performance of students in mathematics’ mathematics performance.