Browsing by Subject "taustatekijä"

The number of immigrant students has risen extremely during the last two decades in Finnish schools, but there still are not many studies about their competence. In my thesis I examine based on earlier studies how well immigrant students know mathematics in primary school and introduce factors which affect their competence. Additionally, I examine affective and cognitive factors and their effect on learning mathematics. I also introduce Wilson's (1970) taxonomy and Kilpatrick et al.'s (2001) intertwined strands of profiency for measuring competence in mathematics. I look for answers to my research questions by reading studies and articles and also by exploring other literature related to the topic. I found my sources by using well-known search engines, for example Nelli-portal, Google scholar and the University of Helsinki library's search engine. The earlier studies found out that immigrant students have lower mathematical competence than native population. It is socially concerning that one student group has lower competence than others. Mathematics is easily seen as a subject in which it is not important to know the language. However, the studies show that one of the most important factors in mathematical competence is knowing the language. Socio-economic background also affects competence in mathematics. Gender does not have a direct effect on mathematical competence but affective factors can indirectly affect mathematical competence in favor of the boys. It is interesting that immigrant students have a slighty more positive attitude towards mathematics than the native population in spite of lower mathematical competence.