The study was done using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to gain a clearer understanding
of students’ difficulties in mathematics problem solving as well as to triangulate findings. Three grade A’ secondary
schools (urban, sub-urban and rural) situated in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia were chosen using purposeful
samplings (Creswell 2009; Weirsma 2000). In each school, students from an average class will be chosen by the
schools’ counsellor. A number of 107 students aged 14 years old were selected for the study. In each school, an
adapted questionnaire consist of three section; section A- on demography; section B- related to mathematics skills;
and section C- related to cognitive ability of learning (Garnett 1998; Stendall 2009) was given out to students.
Topics involved were limited on Numbers. It is followed by a forty-five minutes focused group interview using an
adapted interview protocol (Aiken & Groth-Marnat 2006). Each interview was recorded and transcribed. Items and
construct measured in the questionnaires was validated using rasch model. Later the reliability of the questionnaires
used was confirmed (Alpha Cronbach = 0.79). Quantitative data was analyzed descriptively using percentages and
qualitative data was analyzed descriptively using coding.