**1. Introduction**

The National Development Program 2030 of the National Planning Commission aims at addressing the injustices of the past in South Africa. This policy shifts towards the promotion of science, technology, and mathematics–oriented education from basic education levels. This is motivated by the assertion that tertiary education institutions need to produce more STEM-oriented graduates successfully. The attainment of the set targets in the long term all hinge on the capacity of the country to improve technology and scientific research. These are ultimately expected to be a product of improvements in pass rates and uptake of Mathematics education from basic and pre-tertiary education stages. As directly noted and presented, Mathematics provides society with a rigorous foundation and grasp of scientific thought and theory capacitating individuals for robust economic growth [1]. Lemaire [2] states that mathematical thought and concepts would eventually become the drivers of world development and management.

Maliki, Ngban and Ibu [3] postulate that favourable and desired economic development are direct outcomes from elevated uptake and success in sciences and in particular, mathematics. The rapid development of the global ecosystem across all sectors has fostered an environment where not only economic development but also global and national security are hinged on the deepening and extensive uptake of mathematics-oriented subjects. These views, therefore, mean that there is a need to not only advance the Mathematics school curriculum but also to encourage uptake and throughput of the subject. However, the academic performance in mathematics has varied across national frontiers. In an international study, it emerged that the number of students in the USA and Australia taking up advanced Mathematics courses declined significantly as students' progress in high school [4]. Ysseldyke et al. [5] revealed that more than 66% of learners from low-income urban households failed to demonstrate a grasp of even the most mundane mathematical concepts. These studies present worrisome scenarios where the world's most advanced economy which has abundant resources also suffers the scourge of problematic Mathematics grasp among its learners.

These undesired standards and lack of target achievement are not unique to the developed world alone. In Tanzania, the majority of learners consistently fail to match the required pass results, for four national examination results for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 Mathematics had failure rates of 70%, 77% and 76% respectively [6]. Bahri and Corebima, [7], in a Nigerian study, states that learners' attitudes and fears towards the subject, under-qualified educators and insufficient classroom teaching and learning material grossly affected performance. In the South African context, learners have consistently performed badly in Mathematics examinations. The table below shows the overall performance of the Mathematics candidates in the National Senior Certificate from 2016 to 2020 (**Table 1**).

The table above shows a steady decline in the number of learners taking up Mathematics at the Grade 12 level since 2016. This is the same trend as that reported by Freeman, et al. [4].

According to Reddy [9], poor performance is highest among black Africans. The subject itself is believed to be difficult even to parents [9]. Consequently, many schools in the country, along with their learners, have opted for mathematical literacy, which is viewed as a less complicated subject. While this may be so, the concepts taught and learnt through mathematical literacy are considered inadequate for advanced study


#### **Table 1.**

*The overall performance of candidates in National Senior Certificate Examinations 2016–2020.*

*An Investigation into the Determinants of Underperformance in Mathematics among Grade 12… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109014*

in STEM-related subjects at university level. A typically notable scenario is that of the Bohlabelo cluster in Sekhukhune of Limpopo province in South Africa comprising of four circuits, with 47 secondary schools: Mathematics in Grade 12 has been declared "a killer subject" and as such, learners begin to fear Mathematics. This view is largely ubiquitous in the country's secondary education sector including the Eastern Cape Province. Therefore, this primary purpose of this study is to determine the causes of poor performance among Grade 12 learners in an attempt to mitigate the low levels of performance. At secondary level, along with other related studies, the study will form a base of literature upon which future studies and references may be based.

## **2. Literature review**

#### **2.1 Mathematics teaching strategies**

Teaching strategies encompass all actions in and out of the classroom such as organising and planning of lessons, arrangement of learners, delivery of lessons based on learners' experiences, effective communication using appropriate language and material, as well as lesson assessment based on the outcomes of the lesson [10]. In a Chinese study that compared the effectiveness of constructivist teaching approaches to the traditional transmission style teaching, it emerged that the constructivist approach resulted in significantly higher learning gains [11]. Ifamuyiwa and Akinsola [12] state that cooperative learning strategies are useful strategies when conducting and delivering lessons on complex principles in Mathematics. In addition, Kodisang [13] advises that to foster a productive learning environment, educators must allocate duties and roles to learners in highly functional groups to encourage debate and ultimately higher-order responses from learners. Muradya [14] indicates that during active learning of Mathematics, the selection and application of inappropriate teaching strategies often results in poor performance by learners. The study revealed that students were performing poorly because of how the subject was taught [14]. In support of this notion, Wabwoba, [15] observes that poorly motivated teachers utilising inappropriate and incorrect teaching methods often resulted in learners performing badly.

#### **2.2 School/teacher-related factors**

Hanushek and Rivkin [16] investigated the teacher-related factors that affect learning achievement in Mathematics. Among those factors is the motivation to teach and mediate the construction of mathematical concepts by the learner. The author contends that a positively motivated teacher can help learners minimize mathematical anxiety referred to in the previous section and go an extra mile to help learners address their difficulties in learning the subject and demystify the concepts.

According to Pereira [17], the language of instruction often influenced the performance of learners in all subjects during schooling. Performance was poor, particularly among rural learners or those who have been subjected for long periods to tuition using a different language. There is, therefore, a strong correlation between the language proficiency of learners with their performance in other subjects. However, the implementation in schools has not been sufficiently conducted [18]. In many cases, educators rely on inapplicable teaching practices which affect the learners' grasp

and outcomes. There is a risk of a high failure rate in Mathematics as core concepts may not be understood, or are lost. Learners need not have advanced proficiency in the language of tuition, but rather should have a deep grasp of the language to grasp concepts in Mathematics and related subjects. Rammala [19] also indicated the importance of language in the performance of learners in Mathematics. Most Grade 12 learners in South African schools struggled and performed poorly in the language of tuition, therefore, likewise most learners failed to grasp key concepts in the subject and barely understood what was required of them [19].

A compounding factor is the lack of resources in some schools in South Africa. There are cases of schools in the country which are poorly resourced but manage to perform well regardless of the obvious shortcoming. Conversely, in the long term and on a day-to-day basis, lack of adequate funding can have a disastrous effect on achievement [20]. While qualified Mathematics teachers may be able to teach and deliver classes with limited resources like textbooks, problems emanate from the limited examples and practice work that an individual teacher may develop [21]. Additionally, the lack of resources only compounds the workload of the already burdened teaching staff. Educational institutions that lack textbooks fail to achieve the independent enquiry level and higher-order thinking attained through self-learning [22]. In the study conducted by Van der Linde [23], lack of resources features very strongly as the cause of the poor performance in Grade 12 Mathematics.

#### **2.3 Learner personal factors**

Various learner-specific factors were discovered to be significant in influencing the performance of learners in Mathematics. These included gender, economic status and attitudes of learners [21]. A study conducted in Nepal by Acharya [24] revealed some of the factors affecting learner performance in Mathematics. Learner related factors will be discussed in this section while school/teacher-related factors will be discussed in the section that follows. According to Acharya [24], Mathematics anxiety is one of the key factors affecting students' ability to successfully learn Mathematics. Mathematics anxiety is a general negative feeling towards the process of the learning of the subject and it affects the students' learning negatively. This finding adds weight to findings by Mensah et al. [21] who indicated that the attitude presented by learners towards attaining knowledge in Mathematics was vital in determining the learners' outcomes in the subject. Additionally, Beilock and Willingham [25] state that many students struggle with Mathematics at some point. It is not uncommon to hear them complain that they hate Mathematics: "it's hard," they are quick to give up when they do not understand something. A negative mindset like this can quickly turn into cycles of low confidence, reduced motivation and poor performance [25].

The second factor reported by Acharya [24] is the level of relevant prior knowledge from earlier grades. Mathematical concepts are cumulative and lack of mastery in lower grades makes it very difficult for a learner to construct concepts in higher grades. The third factor affecting performance in Mathematics identified by Acharya [24] is the 'lack of students labour' (p. 11). This refers to a lack of enough effort on the part of the learner when they study Mathematics which leads to a lack of practice in the application of concepts in different scenarios.

In a South African study involving Grade 3 learners, it emerged that only 16% of the learners involved in the study performed at the appropriate standard for Grade 3 level. The rest of the learners performed below the expected level in Mathematics [26]. The same study also revealed that the poorest 60% of the Grade 3 learners are

## *An Investigation into the Determinants of Underperformance in Mathematics among Grade 12… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109014*

three Grade levels behind the wealthiest 20% of learners in Grade 3. Furthermore, the study showed that by Grade 9, the gap between the poor and wealthy learners grows to four grade levels. The Eastern Cape Province in which this present study was conducted is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa. Spaull and Kotze [26] concluded that this learning deficit is difficult and costly to rectify later in life (for example in Grade 12 which was the focus of this study).

In another South African study of township schools like the one in the present study, Mkhize [27] explores the reasons that learners in high school did not do well in Mathematics Grade 12 examinations. According to teachers in the study, the reasons for the poor performance was due to the following reasons:


When asked about the reasons they failed Mathematics, the learners in the study indicated that the reason they appeared lazy and demotivated was because of the constant failure in solving problems when they studied on their own. Mkhize [27] further reports that according to the learners, teachers always *tell them* that Mathematics is easy but they *do not show them* how it is easy.
