Vol. 2 No. Volume 2, Issue 9, Nov 2025 page 1789-18 (2025): A Study of Boys and Girls Students’ Conception of Gaps in Teaching and Learning Mathematics of Government and Private Senior Secondary Schools

Abstract

In mathematics education, a learning gap is a disparity
between a student's actual mastery of concepts and the
expectations for their grade level. Students’ conceptual
understanding often struggles when they are forced to
memorise formulas instead of understanding the spatial,
graphical, and algebraic connections. The present study was
conducted on the boys and girls studying in government and
private senior secondary schools of Hindi-medium instruction
in searching the degree of variation in their experiences of
gaps in teaching and learning mathematics. The students were
sampled from senior secondary schools. A questionnaire was
administered to the sampled students for collection of data on
a three-point scale (Agree/Neutral/Disagree) with respect to
five areas of gaps: Curriculum and Content Gaps,
Pedagogical Gaps, Assessment Gaps, Learning Environment
Gaps, and Resources and Support Gaps. The Chi-square (χ²)
test was applied in examining the degree of variation in their
conceptions of gaps between boys and girls. It was reported
that boys and girls certainly have some degree of variation,
but not up to a significant level, among the students of
government as well as private schools.
Keywords: Conception of Gaps, Foundational Knowledge,
Educational Bottleneck, Snowball Effect, Identification of
Pedagogical Mismatches, Curriculum and Content Gaps,
Learning Environment Gaps, Resources and Support Gaps,
Assessment Gaps