A Study of Impact of Aptitude in Mathematics as Stream Selection at Higher Secondary Level

Present study explores the aptitude among higher secondary students. It is aimed to find out the effect of stream selection in terms of aptitude. A sample of 100 students has been taken from a government senior secondary school of Agra, Uttar Pradesh-India. Data is collected by administering Differential Aptitude Test (DAT). Result showed that there is found significant effect of aptitude in the stream selection process of the students and for mathematics numerical reasoning, clerical speed and accuracy, mechanical and verbal reasoning constitute the significant role for mathematics as careers option at higher secondary level.


INTRODUCTION
Career is very important aspect of student's life. When student starts choosing stream after 10 th class that stream defines their future. Adolescence is the phase of shaping ones personality with high ideals. It is very sensitive age of their lives where they have to take decision for their future. Higher secondary education serves as a foundation for future education and initial direction path for university or higher education. Thus at this stage it is very essential to identify and understand their capabilities to make them aware of that, which options or subjects are suitable for them according to their own efficiency. Higher secondary stage is very crucial stage. At higher secondary stage one has to choose the subjects according to their choices which ultimately influence the future opportunities. Choosing a particular stream right at the beginning has a long lasting impact on student's future. When students start from class11 th they are begins to understand about their interest more clearly and starts journey to specialize in a particular field. This happens only when the subject of interest is the same as the subject for which a student has the required aptitude and personality as well. Therefore, if a student is in the appropriate stream, then it can be used as a building block to start their career and understand the basic concepts associated with it.
Stream selection is very complicated process. So it should be carrier oriented. It is basically includes a process of curious thoughts, mental conflicts, mental pressure and decision making regarding the choice of proper subject selection. The factors which affect the stream selection are: Aptitude, Academic achievement, locus of control, self-assessment of ability, vocational awareness, aptitude, gender and interest in the subject etc. Thus choosing mathematics as a career oriented stream will open the doors of many opportunities in different areas. Mathematics education trains student to make and use measurement, includes the study of computer program, algebra, statistics, geometry, calculus etc.
"A person with an aptitude for mathematics is able to learn mathematical skills with relative ease."

DEFINITION OF APTITUDE
Aptitude can be innate, acquired, learned or development component. Aptitude can be defined as the quality that characterized person's way of behavior which serves to indicate how well he/ she can learn to meet & solve a certain specified kind of problem. Freeman (1971) has defined as "An aptitude is a combination of characteristics indicative of an individual's capacity to acquire (with training) some specific knowledge skill, or a set of organized responses, such as the ability to speak a language, to become a musician, to do a mechanical work". Aptitude plays a major role in child achievement. An individual might have a higher degree of aptitude for type of work and not for certain other. Thus people have wide range of aptitudes. For Example: A student might be good in mathematics but may or may not in literature or music etc. Thus aptitude and achievement are considered as the pillars of stream selection and future career options. Every individual is unique. Everyone differ from another in human activity like leadership, music, art, mechanical, teaching, medical, Engineering and Creativity. These differences can be accessed by different abilities present in the people. There are different types of aptitudes, viz., mechanical, musical, clerical, art, scholastic, law, teaching, medicine, engineering, scientific, numerical, word fluency, special relations aptitudes, etc. Psychologists have  . Each selection consists of twenty questions and ten minute duration for each section was given to the students to complete each section. Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) was combined form of many standardized tools. Aptitudes that are mentioned in it is transformed into Indian circumstances. Aptitude required for mathematics stream:

RELATED LITERATURE
The present study is supported with different studies. Tella, A. (2005) studied the impact of motivation on students' Academic Achievement in Mathematics shows that significant difference when extent of motivation was taken as variable of interest on Academic Achievement in Mathematics based on the degree of their motivation [5]. In the other study James et.al (2006) studied that size of effect is influenced by the ability level of the population studied; gains were large for subjects of high ability than they were for subject of low ability [1]. Luz Stenberg et.al (2010) study explored that student's mathematical ability & attitude played an important role in determining the failure rate in quantitative methods for business at university level [4]. R. A. Olatoye and A. A. Aderogba (2011) indicate that the highest positive significant relationship in between student performance in verbal and numerical ability [2]. Sabahat Usman (2012) in his research study focusing on factor influencing the academic performance of the students and finding reveals that good study environment, regularity in class, Teachers good behavior and proper methodology enhance students achievement [6]. Rajnish Pandey (2012) conducted a research on mathematical aptitude in relation to intelligence and SES findings shows that the mathematical aptitude of the students is significantly related with their intelligence [3].

Objective
To study the effect of aptitude in Mathematics as stream selection at higher secondary level

Hypothesis
There will be no significant effect of aptitude in mathematics stream selection at higher secondary level.

Methodology
Descriptive survey method was used by the researcher in order to consider the research work.

Tools
Differential aptitude test was used by the researcher to measure the aptitude of students towards mathematics as a stream selection at higher secondary level.

Sample of the Study
The sample was 100 students of U.P. board studying in higher secondary level. Random sampling method was used by the researcher. Five schools were randomly selected. From each school 20 students i.e. 10boys and 10 girls were selected who has opted mathematics as their career option. Researcher defines the percentile ranges i.e. 66 th percentile and 33 rd percentile according to this categorize students in three different categories. On the basis of above table the percentage of students who lied in high, middle and low levels of different aptitude.

Findings
The above table showed the analyzed data representing the percentage value of students of higher secondary level from Mathematics stream out of the strengths of 100 students. The  depicted that the students had the aptitudes suitable for this stream. Still there is scope of improvement in the section of verbal Reasoning. Hence they would be able to gain positively in the stream they opted for their future career.
The Figure (a) of Verbal Reasoning showed that out of 100 students of mathematics stream 45% Students had high level of verbal reasoning and 12% students had low level of verbal reasoning.      The Figure (h) of Spatial Aptitude showed that out of 100 students of mathematics stream 49% Students had high level of spatial reasoning and 25% students had low level of Abstract Reasoning which constitute an important function of mathematics stream selection.

CONCLUSION
It concludes that Mathematics stream includes high level of aptitudes like numerical reasoning, mechanical reasoning and abstract reasoning. It had medium level of aptitude like language-grammar, clerical speed and accuracy and spatial aptitude. It also achieved low level in the aptitudes like verbal reasoning and language-spelling. Thus for mathematics as a stream selection numerical reasoning, mechanical reasoning, clerical speed and accuracy, spatial ability, verbal reasoning and abstract reasoning plays a significant role. Today's students are much more aware about their abilities, interest and aptitudes. But still there is a need to effective efforts by teachers and society to aware the students to choose appropriate stream at higher secondary level.