The role of gender and grade level in student's math performance to solve a none-routine problem

The main purpose of this study was investigating the role of two factors, gender and grade level in students’ math performance to solve a none-routine problem. The research sample included 836 lower secondary school (guidance school) students (414 females and 422 males) in the south part of Iran. These students were asked to solve a none-routine problem within the sheet that was provided beforehand. Then, the students’ strategies were coded upon modified theoretical framework –extracted from literature review of math education domain. The data were analyzed using Chi square test, H. Kruskal-Wallis test and U Mann- Whitney test. The results showed that there are gender differences. Indeed, at the 0.01 level of significance, there exists enough evidence to conclude that males have better performance comparing with females. Also, the results indicated that at the 0.05 level of significance, there exists enough evidence to conclude that there is a difference among the three grades. Indeed, performance of students in grade 7 (first grade of guidance school) was better than the performance of students in grade 8 (second grade of guidance school).