Attitudes towards mathematics, achievement, and drop-out intentions among STEM and Non-STEM students in Norway

Abstract

High mathematical ability is central in many domains. In the present study, we investigated relations between students’ high school mathematics background and current study program, and various mathematics-related outcomes. We expected that students who had attended higher-level mathematics courses in high school would report more positive attitudes towards mathematics and higher achievement in math-related classes at university than students who had attended basic mathematics courses in high school. We expected to find the same difference between STEM and non-STEM students. In addition, we expected that mathematics self-efficacy, but not general study-efficacy would predict students’ grades in mathematics-related courses. Lastly, we investigated whether STEM and non-STEM students differed in their drop-out intentions, and whether general study-efficacy and mathematics self-efficacy were related to students’ drop-out intentions. Data from a cross-sectional online questionnaire (N = 264; 177 women, 87 men) of Norwegian university students showed that high-school mathematics background is related to all aspects of students’ attitudes towards mathematics, even after controlling for GPA and general study-efficacy, whereas their current field of study is only related to the subjective value of mathematics. As expected, mathematics self-efficacy, but not general study-efficacy predicted grades in mathematics-related courses. Finally, drop-out intentions did not differ significantly between STEM and non-STEM students, and they were related to general study-efficacy.