The relationship between the attitudes towards Mathematics of parents and their children

Abstract

According to Peters, Seeds, Goldstein, and Coleman (2008) 'attitudes and aspirations of parents and of children themselves predict later educational achievement.' Evenmore, Parsons, et al. (1982) state that 'models, parents in particular, exhibit behaviours, which children imitate, and later adopt as part of their behavioural repertoire.' Our aim is to explore the views towards Mathematics of Maltese parents, and whether these views and attitudes influence their children's attitudes in the said subject. Students in two Church schools at Form 2 level were asked to fill in a Likert-type questionnaire. Ten sets of parents of these students were then chosen to participate in a semistructured interview such that their attitudes will also be studied. The aim is to investigate whether there is a relationship between the attitudes of students and their parents. This study will shed light on whether parental attitudes towards Mathematics really have an effect on their children's attitudes and what factors play an important role in shaping such attitudes. The main conclusions show that there is such a relationship even if it can be influenced by other variables.