Investigating Students’ Attitude towards Learning Mathematics

Abstract

Students' learning of and performance in mathematics is affected by a number of factors, including students' attitude towards the subject, teachers instructional practices, and school environment. This study was conducted to investigate students' attitudes towards learning mathematics in Tanzania. It also sought to ascertain reasons for the liking or disliking mathematics and the relationship between attitude and performance. We employed the ABC Model and the Walberg's Theory of Productivity to investigate students' attitudes towards mathematics and associated factors. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 419 primary school students, 318 secondary school students, and 132 College students from 17 schools and 6 colleges in mainland Tanzania using a survey. The collected data were analysed using percentages, means, standard deviations, ANOVA, correlation, regression and thematic analysis. The results show that initially students exhibit a positive attitude towards mathematics, but their attitude becomes less positive as the students move forward to higher levels of education. A significant positive weak correlation between students' attitude and performance was established. Mathematics' enjoyment and attitude significantly predicted students' performance in our data. The factors influencing the students' liking or disliking of mathematics constituted student's aptitude attribute, instructional and social psychological environmental factors. Furthermore, the results show that failure in examinations is attributed to teacher didactic strategies, institutional resources, poor learning and examination strategies, and failure to understand instructions. The results provide insights for future research and inciting changes in teaching-learning practices that would promote mathematics enjoyment and subsequent better performance in the subject.

Assessing Students’ Performance in Mathematics in Tanzania: The Teacher’s Perspective

“…We analyzed interview data using Walberg's productivity theoretical lens. We believe, this theory provides a better understanding of the cognitive, social and psychological factors that affect students' learning of mathematics (Mazana, et al, 2019). The theory specifies nine factors that promote students learning (Walberg, et al 1986).…”

“…Even though, many students selected to join the schools had lower pass rates (Sumra & Katabaro, 2014). Other reasons for high failure rates are examination setting, poor teacher competencies, poor teaching, motivation and weak content knowledge (Mazana et al, 2019;Ponera et al, 2011).…”

“…Despite the importance given to mathematics, a large number of students struggle to understand the subject (Galadima & Yusha'u 2007;Mazana, Montero, & Casmir, 2019). This struggle is reflected with students' poor performance in the subject during national examinations in Tanzania.…”

“…Many emphasize that high failure rates have been attributed to, amongst other factors, the absence of competent teachers; inadequate teaching/learning resources such as books (Ponera, Mhonyiwa, & Mrutu, 2011) and teaching aids; and understaffing in most schools (Kitta, 2004). Higher failure rates are also associated with low level of motivation among teachers, teachers' attitude towards students and mathematics, poor instructional strategies, teachers' weak content knowledge (Mazana et al, 2019;Michael, 2015), teachers emotions in the classroom (Frenzel et al, 2009;Klusmann et al, 2008). Other factors include, examination setting, poor preparation of teachers in the implementation of the curriculum, and ability grouping (Uysal & Banoglum, 2018).…”

“…Therefore, the study of students' performance and associated factors is worth examining. Although several studies have been conducted to identify factors associated with poor performance in mathematics in Tanzania, these studies have focused on specific levels of education (Joseph, 2013) or on students' perceptions (Kilasi, 2017;Mazana et al, 2019). 3 / 28…”