students’ performance in Mathematics in North Central, Nigeria. Four research questions

guided the study, and Four hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of

significance. The study adopted a correlation survey design. The population was 269,841

senior secondary II students comprising 136,944 males and 132,897 females as of 2021/2022

academic session. A sample of 400 senior secondary II students (203 males & 197 females)

was selected using multi-stage sampling procedures. The Questionnaire on Students'

Reflective Thinking towards Mathematics (QSRTM), Questionnaire on Students' Self-

Efficacy Towards Mathematics (QSSM) and Mathematics Performance Test (MPT) were

used for data collection.

The QSRTM, QSSM and MPT were developed by the researchers

and validated by three experts. The reliability of QSRTM and QSSM were computed using

Cronbach alpha. The results showed the reliability coefficients of 0.78 for QSRTM and 0.78

for QSSM. The reliability coefficient of MPT was calculated using Kuder-Richardson (K-

21). The result indicated a reliability coefficient of 0.85. Simple regression analysis was used

to analyse data to answer the research questions and Regression ANOVA was used to test the

null hypotheses. The findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between male

students’ reflective thinking and their academic performance in Mathematics (r = .34, F =

27.17, p = 0.00 < 0.05). Also, there is a significant relationship between male students’ selfefficacy

and their academic performance in Mathematics (r = .38, F = 35.45, p = 0.00 < 0.05).

On the other hand, it was found that there is no significant relationship between female

students’ reflective thinking and their academic performance in Mathematics (r = .07, F =

1.12, p = 0.29 > 0.05).

Also, there is no significant relationship between female students’ self efficacy and their academic performance in Mathematics in North Central, Nigeria (r =.09, F

= 1.86, p = 0.17 > 0.05). On the basis of the findings, it was recommended among other things

that Mathematics teachers should endeavour to create opportunities during planning,

delivering and assessment of their lessons for students to develop their reflective thinking

skills and self-efficacy which may not only improve but balance students’ performance in

Mathematics irrespective of gender.