

































 

 

 

Predicting Students’ Study Habits through Attitude to Mathematical Mistakes in Alimosho 

Local Government Area, Lagos State. 

 

by 

 

Ruth Folake LAWAL (Ph.D.) 
femifolawal256@gmail.com;lawal.ruth@fcet-akoka.edu.ng 

 
Deborah Oyeronke OLUWOLE (Mrs) 

deboronke@yahoo.com;deboronke65@gmail.com 
and 

Inioluwa Damilola OLANIYI-OJOAWO (Ms) 

email:inioluwaojoawo@gmail.com 

 
Mathematics/Statistics Department,  

Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos 
 
 

 
 
 
Abstract 
Discoveries enhancing societal development are sometimes products of repeated mistakes turned 
inventions. Young students who study mathematics often face the pitfall of computational errors 
which may possess adverse influence on their interest in the subject. This study therefore 
explored the attitude of upper basic students to mistakes made during the learning of 
mathematics and its influence on the prospect of functional study habits capable of predicting 
success at current and higher levels. The cross-sectional survey involved three hundred junior 
secondary school students from Alimosho local government area of Lagos state and was guided 
by three research questions and two hypotheses. A validated and reliable questionnaire 
comprising of Attitude towards Mistake and Study habits inventories was engaged for data 
collection in the study. Findings from analysis of data gathered indicated that students’ attitude 
towards mistakes is positive with female students’ mean attitude slightly greater than male 
students. As well, study habits was observed to increase significantly with students’ advancement 
in class level and a positive attitude towards mathematical mistakes. The study findings led to the 
recommendation that teachers of Mathematics should assist in constructive and beneficial 
analysis of students’ mathematical mistakes to help them develop and sustain effective study 
habits important for immediate and future self and societal development. 

Keywords: Study habits, attitude, mistakes, mathematics 
 

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mailto:femifolawal256@gmail.com
mailto:deboronke@yahoo.com
mailto:deboronke65@gmail.com
mailto:inioluwaojoawo@gmail.com


 

 

 

Introduction 

Individuals are daily faced with circumstances, concepts and situations to which a person 

mustrespond positively or negatively. This reaction describes the attitude of the individual to that 

occurrence. Attitude mayalso be regarded as a positive or negative belief held by individuals 

which reflects opinions or feelings and sometimes manifest in behaviour (Joseph, 2013).While 

several studies have been geared towards improvement of students’ achievement in mathematics 

quite few have addressed the problem of attitude in its various facets. This could be due to the 

fact that mathematics assessments are often directed toward the measurement of cognitive skills 

acquired while affective skills attract little or no attention (Awofala, 2013). The indisputable 

importance of mathematical knowledge suggests that both cognitive and affective strengths are 

needed by learners to study the concepts within the subject. 

While few studies bother on students’ attitude towards mathematics, fewer research works focus 

on attitude to mathematical mistakes which cannot be overlooked because of the problem-

solving nature of mathematics. Although researchers (Lawal, 2009;Lai, 2012;Rong&Mononen, 

2022) have studied error patterns in mathematics, students’ attitude towards these errors is 

seldom the point of focus. Since attitude is capable of reflecting within individuals’ behaviour or 

learned tendencies to concepts the important of this investigation is hereby established. 

Mathematical concepts continually evolve with development thus advancing the need for 

comprehension which is a basis for the study of mathematics (Rushton, 2018). The level of 

students’ understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures is easily measured through 

display of accuracy and precision evident by their frequency of mathematical errors. 

Mathematical errors can be regarded as misunderstanding of mathematical facts, procedures or 

terms which are obvious in students’ attempts of mathematical exercises (Carter, 2013). Every 

mistake made by students in mathematics should not be attributed to chance or ignorance 

because there is a possibility of carelessness by not paying enough attention to details or 

background gaps in the student’s knowledge of mathematics (Lai, 2012). Errors arise due to 

difficulties students experience while handling mathematical problems. These could be as a 

result of comprehension, procedural, measurement, presentation and transformation errors 

(Lawal, 2009;Rong &Mononen, 2022) among others. One plausible way to handle these errors is 

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through students’ study habits which has been documented as a good predictor of students’ 

mathematics achievement. 

Musa and Garba (2019) explain study habits as the degree to which students engage typically 

denotes the degree to which students engage in consistent study inclusive of appropriate routines 

such as reviews of material, comprehensive note taking and conducive environment. In this 

study, it is meant to refer to a students’ habitual way or plan of studying encompassing both 

personal, formal (school) and informal (peers and siblings)reading. Successful implementation of 

study routines by students determine how well they progress and outgrow their weakness (Odiri, 

2015; Okesina,2019).When students’ habitual mode of study are proactive, consistent, 

environment friendly and health promoting, it is referred to as good study habits while actions 

devoid of this are bad study habits. 

 

Odiri (2015) as well as Ebele and Olofu (2017) confirmed that study habits play a significant role 

in determining the quality of education and achievement of students in mathematics as students 

cannot grasp all the learning needed on the subject from teachers inside the class. Study habits 

therefore subsumes both within and without classroom learning activities in mathematics. This 

links up with the importance of students’ attitude to mistakes whether during personal study or 

classroom learning processes. Ranjana and Kumar (2012) examined the influence of attitude 

towards Mathematics and study habit on the achievement in Mathematics at the secondary 

school stage and found that relationship among achievement in mathematics was most closely 

related with attitude towards mathematics and study habit. The regression equation obtained 

showed that study habit contributed more than a quarter to achievement in mathematics. This 

result was corroborated by Ijadunola and Lawal (2016) who also found out that study habits was 

the highest predictor of students’ mathematics achievement when compared with age and gender 

of students. 

 

Theoretical background 

Piaget’stheory of Cognitive development (1952) includes four phases which are Sensori motor 

(from birth to two years), Preoperational (two to seven years), Concrete operational (seven to 

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eleven years), and Formal operational (twelve years and above). The phases are characterised by 

acquisition of knowledge through sensory and motor abilities, then language, perceptual images, 

and symbolic thought after which humans can engage in rational thinking through concrete 

objects and finally through abstractions and logical deductions. Piaget opined that individuals 

begin to adjust to their environment (human and non-human) from birth so cognition is a product 

of the interaction between heredity and environment. Cognitive structures change through 

processes known as Assimilation, Accommodation and Equilibrium. 

Assimilation occurs when new objects or situations are combined or incorporated into previous 

knowledge or structures. When a learnerin fuses a new mathematical knowledge into an already 

acquired one, assimilation becomes evident. During problem solving in mathematics, students 

often encounter problems with varying degrees of difficulties which necessitates assimilation. 

Pitfalls are often woven into mathematical problems to help students learn, observe differences 

and acquire higher problem solving skills to achieve the objectives of mathematics education. 

These blocks of learning should then form stepping stones and not stumbling blocks to learning. 

Accommodation is a modification of a scheme that occurs due to learners’ response to new 

situations (von Glasersfeld, 1995). Construction of knowledge therefore thrives on previous 

experience and development. When a learner attempts to assimilate a new concept 

unsuccessfully, disequilibrium occurs. The learner there after at tains equilibrium (balance) by 

modifying the concept in several ways to aid its assimilation. Students are frequently faced with 

accommodation problems during mathematics instruction but need to be persistent so as to 

adequately interpret the new experience is a personal and uniquely understandable way to them 

as individuals. By implication, learners should be allowed to solve mathematical problems in 

different ways to allow for exploration (Ojose, 2008)while allowing them to make mistakes 

without being punished for them but to learn from their errors. This will allow mathematics 

instructors to identify students’ mistakes in order to help low achievers or mathematically weak 

students (Lai, 2012). 

By nature, mathematical concepts are hierarchical and cumulative, hence assimilation and 

accommodation are imperative in the formation of these concepts as postulated by Piaget. Thus, 

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constant practice and consistency in mathematical processes leads to unlearning, relearning and 

modification of already known concepts. Students’ inability to form the concepts lead to repeated 

mistakes which may pave way for poor study habits, low achievement, lack of personal 

discoveries or lead to vices such as examination malpractice in the present and negative attitude 

to mathematics in the future. This could bring about career incapacitation or limited 

opportunities. The importance of study habits to the mathematics performance of students 

necessitates a study which proposes determinants of students’ development of functional study 

habits.  

A number of factors could make or mar students’ study habits including frequency of mistakes 

during mathematical problem solving, lack of textbooks and unconducive environment. These 

mistakes areeither persistent or incidental deviations from the right track. Learners’ attitudes to 

these mistakes as they solve mathematical problems can either encourage them to learn more 

about mathematics or resultin an abandonment of mathematics. 

A credible cause of students’ poor achievement in mathematics is negative attitude towards the 

subjectarising from repeated mistakes for which they tend to avoid mathematics(Regional 

Educational Laboratory Northwest, 2017). To this end, the attitude of students toward 

mathematical mistakes should be a major concern tostake holders in the educational sector. This 

makes it viable to investigate the attitude of students toward mathematical mistakes as a basis for 

functional study habits. 

 
Research Questions 

1. What is junior secondary school students’ attitude to mathematical mistakes? 

2. What is the relationship among students’ class level, attitude towards mathematical 

mistakes and study habits? 

3. What is the combined influence of attitude to mistakes and gender on students’ study 

habits? 

Hypotheses 

On the basis of the stated research questions above, the following null hypotheses were 

formulated to guide the study: 

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H01: There is no significant relationship between students’ class level, attitude to mistake and 

their study habits. 

H02: There is no significant influence of attitude to mistakes and demographic variableson 

students’ study habits. 

Methodology 

The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design centered on all Junior secondary school 

students within the Alimosho local government area of Lagos state as population. This local 

government was selected purposively being the most populated local government in Lagos state. 

Five schools were selected by simple random sampling technique after which the stratified 

random sampling technique with students’ class as strata was used to select a sample of three 

hundred (300) students consisting of 146 male (48.7%) and 154 (51.5%) female students was 

drawn. 

The instrument for data collection is a questionnaire validated by two experts with an internal 

consistency of 0.60.The questionnaire is sectioned into three: biodata, Attitude to Mathematical 

Mistakes Inventory (ATMMI) and Study habits. The ATMMI was adapted from Leighton 

(2015)while the Study habits inventory was adopted from Charles-Ogan and Alamina (2014) 

with an internal consistency of 0.80. The ATMMI is made up of 22 items set on a four-point 

scale of Never, Rarely, Sometimes and Always. The study habits inventory was made up of 18 

items set on a similar scale with that of the ATMMI. 

 

Data was collected manually after due permission was obtained from the schools sampled. 

Responses were analysed using mean, frequency, standard deviation, Pearson product moment 

correlation and multiple linear regression with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences. 

All hypotheses were tested at α = 0.05 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Analysis of Data  

Research question 1:What is junior secondary school students’ attitude to mathematical 

mistakes?  

Table 1: JSS Students’ Attitude to Mathematical Mistakes by Gender 

Gender Mean N Std. Deviation 

Male 62.08 146 7.30 

Female 63.58 154 7.17 

Total 62.84 300 7.26 
Students’ attitude to mathematical mistakes as presented in Table 1 shows that female students 

on the overall have a better attitude to mistake (m = 63.58, sd = 7.17) than male students in 

mathematics (m = 62.08, sd = 7.30). Generally speaking, the students have a good attitude to 

mistakes in mathematics (m = 62.84, sd = 7.26). This mean value translates to 71.41% of the 

maximum points obtainable on the ATMM inventory which is quite high.  

 

Research question 2:What is the relationship among students’ class level, attitude towards 

mathematical mistakes and study habits? 

Table 2: Relationship among students’ class level, ATMM and study habits 

 CLASS ATT TO MISTAKES STUDY HABIT 
CLASS Pearson Correlation 1   

Sig. (2-tailed)    

ATT TO MISTAKES Pearson Correlation .439** 1  

Sig. (2-tailed) .000   

STUDY HABIT Pearson Correlation .170* .228** 1 

Sig. (2-tailed) .012 .002  
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). 

Table 2 reveals the relationship among Class, and Attitude of Junior secondary school students’ 

attitude to mathematics mistakes and study habits. Data analysis illustrates that all relationship 

magnitude among the variables and study habits are positive indicating progress along same 

direction. 

The p-value for each correlation magnitude is less than 0.05 depicting statistical significance of 

all the relationship among the variables we therefore reject the null hypothesis and conclude that  

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there is a statistically significant relationship between class ATMM and study habits. 

 
Research question 3: What is the combined influence of attitude to mistakes, classlevel and 

gender on students’ study habits? 

Table 3: Linear Regression of Class, Gender and ATMMI on Study habits 
 B Std. Error Beta T          Sig. 
1 (Constant) 31.381 5.027  6.242 .000 

Gender 3.378 1.100 .189 3.070 .002 
Class 2.045 .731 .188 2.800 .006 
Attitude to Mistake .521 .114 .422 4.566 .000 

r2 = 0.201, F(4, 296) = 13.43 

The summary of regression analysis puts the Adjusted R square value at 0.201 signifying that 

gender and attitude to mistakes in mathematics jointly account for 20.1% of the variations 

observed  

in students’ study habits. ANOVA statistics as presented in the table reveals that the predictors 

class level, gender and ATMMI significantly predicts students’ study habits with F(4, 296) = 

13.43; p = 0.000. Thus, the null hypothesis is rejected and we conclude that the influence of 

attitude to mistakes and demographic variableson students’ study habits is statistically 

significant. 

The standardized coefficients show that the highest influence on students’ study habits is exerted 

by Attitude towards mathematical mistake (B = 0.422) followed by Gender (B = 0.189). Class 

level comes last withB=  0.188 
 

Discussion of Findings 

Students’ ATMMI analysis by gender showed a faintly higher value for female students than 

males although students’ points on the inventory was adjudged as high indicating a positive 

attitude towards mathematical mistakes. Junior secondary school students’ study habits was 

observed to progress as their class level advances indicating that as these students moved higher 

academically, their study habits increased. This could be due to their exposure to higher concepts 

in mathematics which leads into a more rigorous involvement in the subject. 

A close observation of the relationship magnitude and direction among the variables showed 

significant positive progress between the variables which is reflective of how students’ class 

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associates with their study habits in a positive manner. Similarly, ATMM was found to correlate 

momentously with students’ study habits as well. 

Predictive investigation indicate that together, the variables explain more than one-fifth of the 

disparity observed in students’ study habits. The quantification of Beta coefficients gave a 

comparative view of the influence of each variable on study habits with ATMM as the highest 

followed by gender and lastly students’ class level. This result in is consonance with Ranjana and 

Kumar (2012) as well as  Ijadunola and Lawal (2016)  It therefore appears that ATMM 

encourages JSS students to study hardest and leads to a better achievement in the subject. This 

solution to dwindling mathematical proficiency will help to develop and sustain functional study 

habits in students so that distractions posed by phones, social media and social vices are 

conquered leading to national development. 
 

Recommendations 

Upon the premise of the study findings, the following recommendations are proposed 

1. Mathematics teachers rather than emphasize students’ mistakes should assist in 

constructive analysis of students’ mathematical mistakes to help them develop and 

sustain effective study habits important for immediate and future societal development. 

2. Students should be encouraged to make attempts without fear of mistakes as this will 

improve their study habits and aid personal discoveries and mathematics achievement.  

3. A more robust exploration of students’ attitude towards mathematical mistakes and study 

habits should be investigated using higher class level of learners for a more 

comprehensive assessment of the relationship between the variables.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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