Students' attitudes towards Mathematics and its relationship to achievement gender and age

Abstract

This quantitative study looked at whether the attitude towards mathematics has an impact on achievement and whether there are any differences between both genders and at different ages in local state schools. One hundred and sixty male and female, Form 1 and Form 3 students attending state Junior Lyceum and Area Secondary schools were given a questionnaire made up of 32 statements with a Likert scale consisting of 4 options. At the end of the questionnaire students left a comment on why they had such an attitude towards mathematics. The annual examination marks of the students given a questionnaire were also noted. Statistical analysis was performed on the attitude test in relation to the annual marks and the final comments were also analyzed. The results show that the attitude is significantly related to the performance. In terms of attitude scores statistical significance in favour of males was found for Form 3 Area Secondary students and in favour of females for Form 1 Area Secondary students. Negative attitudes towards mathematics tend to increase as the age of the students increases. In terms of achievement, girls seem to be out performing boys in annual examinations. Statistically significant differences favouring girls were found for Form 1 Area Secondary and Form 3 Junior Lyceum students. The students' comments at the end of the questionnaire show that teachers do have quite an important influence in helping to develop students' attitudes. They also suggest that a lot of students find the subject boring and difficult.