Assessment of Gender Interaction and Interest in Mathematics Achievement in Keffi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State-Nigeria

This paper investigated assessment of gender interaction and interest in mathematics achievement in Keffi Local Government Area of Nasarawa state. The purpose of this study is to: determine the significant difference between mean achievement of male and female students' interaction in Mathematics and establish significance difference between interest of male and female students in mathematics. The study adopted ex-post facto research design. The target population consists of 7,324 students which comprise of 4020 male and 3304 female within 7 senior secondary schools. Simple random sampling strategy was adopted to select 182 male and 176 female respondents within 7 schools that will be responding to questionnaire designed by the researcher. The researchers developed a single proforma as an instrument for data collection from students' senior certificate examination conducted by WAEC. It was found that male students excel in mathematics more than their female counterparts. It was tested (@=0.05: when (t.cal. 2.35 > 1.796 tab value) and male students have interest in mathematics than female students i.e. to say, there was significance difference between male and female interaction and interest in mathematics. The study recommended that teachers should make use of alternative teaching methods like the use of games and simulations to motivate students' interest (male and female) in the learning of Mathematics.