Gifted students’ attitudes towards mathematics: a qualitative multidimensional analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine intellectually gifted students’ attitude towards mathematics. Affective domain has been considered as one of the pillar of giftedness although a limited number of studies have been carried out related to this issue and gifted students’ attitude towards mathematics has rarely been investigated. The three-dimensional model of attitude towards mathematics (emotional dimension, perceived competence and vision of mathematics) developed by Zan and Di Martino (Montana Math Enthusiast 3:157–168, 2007) was used in order to better understand the factors affecting the construction of students’ positive and negative attitudes. A total of 36 fifth grade (12 years old) students in a centre for gifted students participated in the study. The data were gathered through students’ metaphors about mathematics, students’ narratives about their mathematical experiences and interviews with each student. The data were analysed using the content analysis method. The findings showed that the majority of the students had a positive attitude towards mathematics and that this attitude was quite stable and developed at an early age, although one-third of the students had negative or unstable attitude towards mathematics. The findings also indicated that there was a strong interaction between the three dimensions of attitude, and the vision of mathematics often underlies students’ positive and negative emotions towards mathematics.