High School Students’ Reasons for disliking Mathematics: The Intersection Between Teacher’s Role and Student’s Emotions, Belief and Self-efficacy

Jair J. Aguilar

doi:10.29333/iejme/11294

Abstract

The study presented here depicts the reasons for high school students to have a negative attitude toward mathematics. The students were asked to rate mathematics in comparison to other subjects like history, physics, or computer science. In addition, they were asked about their attitude, beliefs, and motivations toward mathematics. To this end a convergent parallel mixed-method approach was implemented using a questionnaire that combines open-ended, closed-ended (e.g., forced ranking scale, or multiple and single responses), and liker-scale items. One of the main reasons for student’s reluctancy toward mathematics is their lack of understanding and self-perception of low content knowledge, which let them to have a negative perception. Students stated that their negative perception was not new, but instead something they knew since elementary.

Highlights

Student’s experiences through their academic life affect their perceptions, belief, and opinions toward mathematics (Kane & Mertz, 2012) and whether or not they like mathematics or even how much they like it
77% of the students responded that they knew mathematics was not their most preferred subject since elementary or middle school, while 23% stated that they discovered it in high school
Student’s motivation, perception, belief, and attitude toward mathematics are influenced by many factors, including social and cultural aspects as Kane and Mertz (2012) stated

Summary

Introduction

Student’s experiences through their academic life affect their perceptions, belief, and opinions toward mathematics (Kane & Mertz, 2012) and whether or not they like mathematics or even how much they like it. Other variables like gender could potentially impact how students perceive mathematics and its usefulness in life. According to Frost et al (1990) beliefs and ways of thinking about woman regarding mathematics has been harmful to females. In the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 that is applied to young adolescences in thirty-one countries, males had a better achievement in mathematics than females in twenty-eight of the countries (Gallagher & Kaufman, 2005). Gender plays a role in student’s achievement in mathematics

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