THE EFFECTS OF LEARNING STYLES AND STUDENTS' VIEWS ON ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS

This study was conducted to understand the effect of change status of learning styles and views towards mathematics on achievement among higher secondary students. Two hundred forty seven grade eleven science students from two higher secondary schools at Kathmandu, Nepal, participated in the study. In this survey method, a set of 44 force choice dichotomy items of the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) and 55 views statements were used at the beginning and end of the academic year 2012/13. The ILS has four dimensions that include active and reflective; sensing and intuitive; visual and verbal; sequential and global. Students' changes of views (positive, balanced, or negative) and learning styles status were determined by subtracting the pre-survey from the post-survey scores. The learning outcome was based on 50 items of a Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) of 100 marks constructed by the researchers. It was administered at the end of the academic year along with ILS and views survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with SPSS software. The mean MAT score of the different student groups varies from 26.0 to 54.9 and the standard deviation varies from 1.2 to 18.2. The findings revealed that the balanced group of students who remained in the active to active and reflective to reflective learning styles scored higher in MAT. However, positive and balanced students who shifted from visual learning style to verbal scored higher in comparison with their other counterpart. It was also found that positive group of students (who were sensing in the pre-survey) and balanced group of students (who were intuitive) scored higher, while negative group of students (who were sequential in the pre-survey) scored slightly higher than those students who were global. Students' scores, whose learning styles dimension changed from visual to verbal, were higher followed by sensing to intuitive, and lower from verbal to verbal. In addition, there exist relationships between pre and post learning styles with mathematics achievement. As far as the researchers' knowledge is concerned, this study is believed to be the first one of this kind. These findings have implications for improvement of mathematics education of higher secondary students

Learning styles and mathematics achievements among higher secondary science students.

This study was conducted to understand the learning styles and its relationship to mathematics achievement among higher secondary students. Two hundred forty seven grade eleven science students from two higher secondary schools at Kathmandu, Nepal, participated in the study. We used the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) to inquire the students at the beginning and at the end of the academic year 2012/13. The questionnaire has a set of 44 dichotomized items, and the ILS has four dimensions that include processing (active/reflective), perceive (sensing/intuitive), input (visual/verbal), and understanding (sequential/ global). We also created a Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) based on 50 items and 100 marks in order to measure student’s achievement. This test was administered at the end of the academic year along with ILS. We used basic descriptive statistics for our data analyses. The findings revealed that the majority of the students tend to balance learning styles among active, sensing, visual, and sequential. The MAT score of the students varies from 38.9 to 48.5 with a mean score of 42.9 and standard deviation of 13.5. We also found a moderate relationship between pre and post learning styles. However, students whose learning styles dimension changed from visual to verbal scored higher in MAT followed by sensing to intuitive, and lower from verbal to verbal

Relationships between students' views towards mathematics and achievement in mathematics.

The mathematical knowledge influences the man's mind for simplicity, accuracy analysis, synthesis and understanding the world. Mathematics serves both, the basic skills for human resources and the foundation for further education. The assumption is that higher secondary level mathematics is the cornerstone of mathematical sciences and engineering, which stimulated the researcher to focus on the students' views towards the mathematics and learning outcomes of mathematics. This research has been undertaken in order to investigate the relationship among the grade eleven students’ academic achievement in mathematics, their views towards mathematics, and academic aspiration. The population under study consists of 247 students enrolled in the academic year 2013 in a science program running Higher Secondary School of Kathmandu, Nepal. Students' changed scores of views (positive, balanced, or negative) were determined by subtracting the pre-views from the post-views. A descriptive analysis has been employed to examine the relationship between students' pre- and post-views towards mathematics based on five subscales (value, enjoyment, self-confidence, motivation and belief), academic aspiration (mathematical sciences, undecided, nonmathematical sciences), and mathematics achievement scores. This study found that the students with changes in views scored relatively low in MAT when compared to those students with balanced views. However, students with positive changes scored higher than those students with negative changes. It was also found that the achievement of students was higher for students with aspiration in mathematical sciences, or yet undecided, whenever balanced or positive changes occurred. However, when negative changes occurred, MAT scores were lower for undecided students than those with non-mathematical or mathematical sciences' aspirations. As far as the researchers' knowledge is concerned, this study is believed to be the first one of this kind. These findings have implications for improvement of mathematics education of pre-university students

Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018

Anemia is a globally widespread condition in women and is associated with reduced economic productivity and increased mortality worldwide. Here we map annual 2000–2018 geospatial estimates of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age (15–49 years) across 82 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), stratify anemia by severity and aggregate results to policy-relevant administrative and national levels. Additionally, we provide subnational disparity analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of anemia prevalence inequalities within these countries and predict progress toward the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) to reduce anemia by half by 2030. Our results demonstrate widespread moderate improvements in overall anemia prevalence but identify only three LMICs with a high probability of achieving the WHO GNT by 2030 at a national scale, and no LMIC is expected to achieve the target in all their subnational administrative units. Our maps show where large within-country disparities occur, as well as areas likely to fall short of the WHO GNT, offering precision public health tools so that adequate resource allocation and subsequent interventions can be targeted to the most vulnerable populations.Peer reviewe

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4 (62.3 (55.1�70.8) million) to 6.4 (58.3 (47.6�70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization�s Global Nutrition Target of <5 in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2 (30 (22.8�38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0 (55.5 (44.8�67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic. © 2020, The Author(s)

Author Correction: Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017 (Nature Medicine, (2020), 26, 5, (750-759), 10.1038/s41591-020-0807-6)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. © 2020, The Author(s)