The Prevalence and Effect of Mathematical Ability on Response Aberrance among Secondary School Students in Osun State
AdeyemiAlaba Adediwura, Victor Oluwasayo Agunbiade

Abstract
The study examined the Osun State secondary school students’ response aberrance in Mathematics and determined the differences in students’ response aberrance in Mathematics among Osun State secondary school students in accordance to mathematical ability. These were with a view of improving the validity, reliability and usability of test scores in the schools. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The study population consisted of all students in Osun state Secondary Schools. A sample of 300 students was selected from ten Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Osun state. From each of the LGAs, three public schools were selected randomly. A total of 20 students were selected purposively from each of the schools according to their mathematical ability. Data were collected using an instrument entitled Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT). The response aberrance values for each students were computed with aberrance indices W* (within ability index) and B* (beyond ability index) using MATLAB. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive, ANOVA and Scheffe Multiple Comparison. The results of the analysis showed there is response aberrance in Mathematics among secondary school students with mean of 1.8931 and 4.0651 which is more than 0.5 for the two aberrance indices W* and B* respectivelys. The results also showed that there was significant difference in the response aberrance as measured by W* and B* based on students’ academic ability (F=45.312, p<.05, df = 2) and (F= 5.886, p< .05, df= 2). The study concluded that there was response aberrance in Mathematics and that students’ mathematical ability has effect on the severity of the response aberrance among secondary school students.

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