Casual Relationships of Factors Influencing Mathematical Problem Solving Ability of MathayomSuksa 3 Students in Educational Opportunity Expansion Schools in Sisaket Province

Abstract

The purposes of this research were (1) to investigate the relationship among the causal factors, 2) to examine the congruence of the causual relationship of factors influencing mathematical problem solving ability and the empirical evidence, and 3) to study the direct, indirect as well as the total effect on mathematical problem solving ability. The samples were 589 Mathayom Suksa 3 students in the first semester of academic year 2014 at the opportunity expansion schools in Sisaket province. The instruments were a test and a five-scale rating questionnaire.  The statistics used for data analysis were mean, standard deviation, coefficiency of variation, correlation coefficiency, and path analysis.

The research findings were as follows:

1. As for the ability in solving mathematical problems as result variation, it was found that background knowledge, numering learning apptitude, language learning aptitude, mathematical learning attention, learning achievement motivation, aptitude in seasoning learning and perception of self-ability had positive effect with statistical significance at the critical level .05. The attitude toward mathematics was the variable without statistical significance at the critical level .05.  The eight variables together explained the variation of ability in mathematical problem-solving with 79.2% accuracy.
2. The form of casual relationships of factors influencing mathematical problem solving ability was in congruence with empirical evidence.
3. The casual variable with direct effect was background knowledge while the variable with both direct and indirect effect was numbering learning aptitude, language learning aptitude, reasoning learning aptitude, mathematical learning attention, acceptance of self-learning ability and learning achievement motivation, and the variable with indirect effect was attitude towards mathematics.