Document Type

Dissertation

Rights

This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only

Disciplines

1.2 COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

Publication Details

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Technological University Dublin for the degree of M.Sc. in Computing (Data Analytics) January 2017

Abstract

Secondary education provides not only knowledge and skills, but also inculcates values, training of instincts, fostering right attitude and habits to enable adolescents to move into tertiary education or to ensure a workplace for students who decided to terminate their secondary schooling. Without secondary education to guide the development of young people through their adolescence, they will be ill prepared for tertiary education or for workplace, moreover, the possibility of juvenile delinquency and teenage pregnancy becomes higher. These negative effects will increase the pressures and expenditures on society and socio-economic. In 2006, Portugal was reported having the higher school-leaving rate (40%) than European Union average (15%). One-fourth had dropout school without completing the compulsory education. In the last decades, the educational level of the Portugal has significantly improved. However, in 2012, students performances were still reported lower than the OECD countries’ average. In particular, lack of success in the core modules of Mathematics and the Portuguese. This study examined the impact of student demographic and family-related factors on secondary school student’s Portuguese and Mathematics performance in Portugal. Dataset was collected from two public secondary schools - Galriel Pereora and Mousiho da Silveira. The final sample size contained 369 instances. Correlation, crosstab, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, multi-linear regression and logistic regression were utilized to analysis the significance and the prediction of variables. Sex, school educational support, higher education intention, mother’s occupation and study time were found to be significant predictors of student’s Mathematics performance. Sex, school, address, school education support, higher education intention, study time and health status were found to be significant predictors of student’s Portuguese performance.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/D7P33K


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