This study was to measure the Van Hiele’s levels of geometric thinking attained by Ghanaian Junior High School Form 3 (JHS 3) students before writing the BECE. A quantitative research approach was employed in the study and a sample of 105 students randomly selected from the four schools. The results showed that 22 students (20.95%) of the students could not attain any VHG level at all, that means they were in level 0. 65 students (61.91%) of the students attained Van Hiele’s level 1, 17 (16.19%) reached level 2, and only 1 (0.95%) reached level 3. An independent t-test yielded no statistically significant difference between public and private school students in their geometric thinking levels t(103) = 0.926, p > 0.05. The findings indicated that most of the Ghanaian JHS graduates do not attain satisfactory levels of VHGT. Recommendations are made for improving the teaching of geometry.

This study aimed to explore the impact of mathematics anxiety on the academic performance of junior high school pupils in the Bongo district of Ghana. In this study, 492 pupils in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region of Ghana were sampled. Using a questionnaire to gather data for the study, Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation and inferential statistics such as the independent samples t-test, one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson Moment Correlation were used for analysis. Findings from the study identified that mathematics anxiety negatively affects the mathematics performance of pupils and the study also revealed that, gender plays a very key role in influence the mathematics anxiety of pupils. Based on the findings, it was recommended that mathematics teachers should teach Mathematics with the psychology of teaching and learning the subject to prepare pupils’ for the subject.

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