Why educational failure in mathematics from the perspective of students: A qualitative study

Subject Areas : Research in Curriculum Planning

saideh sharif ¹ , Arezu Ghafoori ² , Keyvan Salehi ³

1 - M.A. Student Educational Research, Department of Curriculum Development & Instruction Methods, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Ph.D. Student Educational Psychology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3 - Faculty member, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2022-10-02 Accepted : 2025-05-20 Published : 2025-07-20

Keywords: educational failure, Students, Math Lesson, Qualitative Approach, Phenomenological Method,

Abstract :

The failure in education is an unpleasant phenomenon, which may be experienced by students during their studies, which itself causes the loss of human and material capital. The failure in education as a decline in academic performance and students' lessons from a satisfactory level to an undesirable level. One of the lessons that affect students' academic failure is the mathematical lesson. The present study aims to clarify the concept of academic failure from its students in mathematics from the perspective of tenth grade students. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview technique with 20 students aged 18-17 who were at the 10th grade. The data were collected based on the purposeful sampling method and analyzed based on the seven-step strategy. The findings were categorized in 82 the semantic statement, 13 sub- themes and 3 main themes including) student performance, teacher performance, and organizational performance (The results lead to a clear explanation of perceptions of students who have all experienced a failure in mathematics.

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