A STUDY OF SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS AS A CORRELATION ON ACHIEVEMENT OF BASIC MATHEMATICAL SKILLS AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS STUDY OF SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS AS A CORRELATION ON ACHIEVEMENT OF BASIC MATHEMATICAL SKILLS AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS.”

A Single and his social environment are equally reliant on social and cultural differences impact the intellectual and affective domain of every individual. The difference may be due to variance between their schools, family, communities etc. So socio-cultural pressure on the educational system has been a matter of deep exploration in many countries. Difference in educational attainment may be due to variance in home background parental caring, socio-economic status, family cultural level etc. accomplishment in Mathematics has, become at present the nation concern educationalists, administrators, the public and parents are involved in this problem. The main motive of the study is to study of socio-cultural factors as a correlation on achievement of basic mathematical skills among high school students. This research is undertaken with a view to examining the relationship with socio-cultural factors and achievement of basic mathematical skills of different high school students with a sample size 300. The result concluded that there doesn’t exist any relationship between socio-cultural factors and achievement in basic mathematical skills among high school students.


Introduction
Being mathematics teacher the investigator is very interested to know about the effect of sociocultural factors on achievement of basic mathematical skills among high school students. It is hoped that the findings of the study be helpful to teacher's parents and educational reformers. That means it will help them to realize that a proper socio-cultural environment is a necessary factor in the mathematical achievement of a student. Parents should take care to create a suitable Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [448] socio-cultural environment in the home parents must try to check regularly the study materials of their children and give them proper directions. Parents should help them to solve mathematics problems. Teachers should motivate the children to participate in mathematics quiz programme. Teachers should provide opportunities to mingle with their peer groups. A co-operative effort of parents and teacher's is essential for the betterment of academic achievement in children.

Objectives of the Study
There are two main types of objectives undertaken by the investigator in this study work.

General Objectives
 To study the socio-cultural factors as a correlation on achievement of basic mathematical skills among high school students in Palakkad District.  To adopt questionnaire on socio-cultural factors among high school students.

Specific Objectives
 To study about the socio-cultural environment of high school students.  To study about the achievement of basic mathematical skills among high school students.  To find out whether there exists a significant difference on socio cultural factors between male and female high school students.  To find out whether there exists a significant difference on socio cultural factors between rural and urban high school students.  To find out whether there exists a significant difference, on socail-culture factors among aided, unaided and govt. high school students.  To find out whether there exists a significant difference on achievement of mathematical skills between rural and urban area high school students.  To find out whether there exists a significant difference on achievement of basic mathematical skills among aided, unaided and govt. High school students.  To find out whether there exists a significant difference on achievement of basic mathematical skills between male and female high school students.

Method
For the present study, normative Survey method is used. A brief description of the sample selected, tools used and statistical techniques used for analyzing the data are as followers:

Sample
The present study was conducted on representative sample of 300 high school students from 8 schools of Palakkad district. Stratified random sampling technique was used, giving due representation to variables like gender, locality and type of school.

Variables of the Study
This study tries to investigate the correlation of Socio-cultural factors on achievement of basic mathematical skills among secondary school students of Palakkad District. The Select independent variable is socio-cultural which include 1) Social-cultural environment of home.
2) Social-cultural environment of school 3) Social-cultural environment of society The department variable is achievement of basic mathematical skills. Classificatory variables:-Gender and locale are taken as classificatory variables.

Tools used for the Collection of Data
For the present study, the following tools are employed. a. Questionnaire on socio-cultural factors. (developed by the researcher) b. Achievement test in basic mathematical skills (developed by the researcher) Socio-cultural enrollment of home 10 25% 2 Socio-cultural enrollment of school 20 50% 3 Socio-cultural enrollment of society 10 25%

Preparation of Scoring Key
Socio-cultural factors questionnaire is used for measuring the socio-cultural environment of secondary school students. This questionnaire included 40 items from three areas of sociocultural factors, like socio-cultural environment of home, socio-cultural environment of school, socio-cultural environment of society of the students. Score one is given to each correct responses and zero to wrong responses.

Preparation of Question-Wise Analysis.
In order to avoid all loopholes the investigator prepares a table containing all relevant details of all the items of the test. This is done by making an analysis of each item in terms of content material objective, specification, form of question, difficulty level, marks and estimated time. This help the investigator to check whether all the aspects envisaged in the design and blue print are satisfied by test in its final form.      HYPOTHESIS 1: There will be significant difference in the mean scores of socio-cultural factors of secondary school students for the sub sample based on gender and locale. From the table 9, it is concluded that there exists no significant difference in the mean scores of socio-cultural factors of high school students for the sub sample based on locale.

HYPOTHESIS 2:
There will be significant difference in the mean scores of achievement in basic mathematical skills of high school students for the sub sample based on gender and locale From the table 10, it is concluded that there exist no significant difference in the mean scores of achievement in basic mathematical skills based on gender.

HYPOTHESIS 3:
Test of significance of the correlation coefficients, between socio-cultural factors and achievement in basic mathematical skills of high school students for total sample and sub sample based on gender and locale. From the table 11, it reveals that for total sample the correlation between the variables sociocultural factors and achievement in basic mathematical skills were found to be 0.048. This shows that there exist a negligible positive correlation the variables. The calculated t-value (1.3575) is less than the tabled value (1.96 and 2.58) required for significant at 0.05 and 0.01 levels of significance. Therefore 'r' is found to be not significant.

HYPOTHESIS 4:
There will be significant difference in relationship between socio-cultural factors and achievement in basic mathematical skills among high school students for the subsample based on gender and locale.

Conclusion
Based on the results obtained from the present study, "A Study of Socio-cultural factors, as a correlate on achievement of basic Mathematical skills among high school students', revealed that there doesn't exist any relationship between socio-cultural factors and achievement in basic mathematical skills among high school students.

Suggestions for Further Research
1) The study of the effect of socio-cultural factors on achievement in basic mathematical skills can be conducted in VII or VIII standard students. 2) The present study was conducted only one district of Kerala, the study can be conducted on their district of the State. 3) The present study was conducted in Mathematics, the study can be conducted on other subjects. 4) Study can be conducted to find out the factors that causes low achievement in Mathematics.