Factors Explaining Business Student Attitudes Towards Mathematics: Does Gender Still Matter?

Leiv Opstad

doi:10.30935/scimath/10771

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that can explain the attitudes of business students towards mathematics, using data from a business school in Norway. This article focusses on gender, personality traits (Big Five Model) and mathematical background. The independent variables were investigated simultaneously using a linear regression model. Mathematical abilities are important for success in business studies, and therefore, attitudes towards mathematics matter, since they will affect students’ effort and their choice of further studies. It was found that mathematical background has the strongest effect on student attitudes towards mathematics. Personal characteristics also explain the variation in the attitudes towards mathematics to some degree. Gender has little or no impact on the dependent variable. If there is any gender difference it is in favour of female students.

Highlights

Many factors influence students’ attitudes towards mathematics including the teacher’s view of the use of mathematics (Marbán & Mulenga, 2019; Schaeffer et al, 2020)
This study suggests there is no gender gap in attitudes towards mathematics among undergraduate business students in Norway
Adjusting for mathematical background and personal traits, the gender difference seems to be in favour of females

Summary

Introduction

Many factors influence students’ attitudes towards mathematics including the teacher’s view of the use of mathematics (Marbán & Mulenga, 2019; Schaeffer et al, 2020). Our investigation of this topic will include mathematical skills and personality traits using the Big Five Model. The choice depends on the student’s emotions and feelings about mathematics, Mathematical topics are important in many fields, including business studies (Opstad, 2018). It is important to investigate business student attitudes towards mathematics, since this might have an effect on student choices of further studies. There is a link between performance in mathematics and attitudes towards mathematics (Hemmings & Kay, 2010)

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Conclusion