Factors influencing the selection of university majors varying in mathematical content.

Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to examine attitudinal, affective, and performance variables related to mathematics as potential predictors of choice of university majors varying in mathematical content. Subjects completed an arithmetic test and a questionnaire on their math background, perceived skill, interest, and affect towards math. We found that (a) most women avoided majors that required even moderate amounts of mathematics, even though they were as skilled at arithmetic as males and had taken equivalent amounts of math in high school, (b) subjects who were anxious about math avoided majors that had moderate or high math requirements, and (c) subjects who were less skilled at arithmetic chose majors with fewer math requirements. Because gender and negative affect towards math contributed independently to choice of major, interventions to combat math anxiety could be valuable for both male and female students. Similarly, fluency and affect contributed independently to choice of major. The low percentage of women who had chosen majors requiring moderate or high amounts of math (21% vs. 52% of males) is consistent with other studies showing pervasive and persistent gender differences in career selection.

Exploring the influence of basic cognitive skills on the relation between math performance and math anxiety

“…Ferguson et al (2015) found that spatial skills partially mediated the correlation between gender and math anxiety (see also . Women and men do not typically differ in mathematics performance, even though women sometimes report being more anxious about their mathematical skills than men (Devine, Fawcett, Szűcs, & Dowker, 2012;Dowker, Sarkar, & Looi, 2016;Hembree, 1990;LeFevre et al, 1992) suggesting that the relation between gender and anxiety is not directly tied to number skills. In contrast, women typically perform worse than men on standardized measures of spatial skills (Maeda & Yoon, 2013;Reilly & Neumann, 2013;Uttal et al, 2013;Voyer et al, 1995).…”

“…Math-anxious students avoid courses that involve mathematics (Ashcraft & Ridley, 2005;Hembree, 1990;Suárez-Pellicioni et al, 2016), they rate themselves as less skilled in math, have less intention to pursue further mathematics, and have lower math confidence than their peers (e.g., Hembree, 1990;LeFevre, Kulak, & Heymans, 1992). Notably, correlations between math anxiety and math performance are moderate and, thus in some models, reduced math competence is assumed to be a consequence of avoiding math-related courses and activities (e.g., Ashcraft & Ridley, 2005) rather than the cause of the anxiety.…”

Doing as they are told and telling it like it is: Self-reports in mental arithmetic

“…They were asked to indicate the extent to which they use nonretrieval procedures to solve basic multiplication, addition, and subtraction problems, such as derived facts, counting, rules, and tricks (e.g., songs or rhymes). The participants also completed portions of the Mathematics Skills Questionnaire used by LeFevre, Kulak, and Heymans (1992). A comprehensive analysis of how the questionnaire data is related to participants' performance across a series of studies is reported in LeFevre et al (2003).…”

A Spanish version of the short Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (sMARS)

“…This result is in accordance with the fact that high math anxiety is related to students' intentions to enroll in fewer math courses and take fewer elective math courses (Hembree, 1990;Ashcraft et al, 2000). This result would also explain why math anxiety is related to students' choices of a college major, with those with higher math anxiety avoiding majors and careers that require a considerable math background (LeFevre, Kulak & Heymans, 1992).…”

“…According to Hembree (1990), higher mathematics anxiety was slightly related to lower IQ levels. 7 1990; Hyde, Fennema, Ryan, Frost & Hopp, 1990), and individuals who follow social science and humanities to have higher mathematics anxiety than those who course technology and science (LeFevre, Kulak & Heymans, 1992).…”