Abstract
Mathematics proficiency has an acknowledged impact on students’ accounting grades. Success in this core business subject is dependent on students’ mathematical aptitude, attitude and type of secondary schooling. Our study investigated accounting students’ attitudes to mathematics on domains of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (F-SMAS) and identified demographic variables in overall attitudes to mathematics, which are pertinent to higher education pedagogy for accountancy. Eight of nine F-SMAS with established reliability and validity were used for the study. A cross-sectional data set containing demographic details and attitudes to mathematics were collected, and quantitative responses of 255 first-, second- and third-year pre-service teachers were analysed. The F-SMAS scores were strongly positive, except for mathematics anxiety, where the score was slightly above neutral. The distribution of scores showed that there are first- and second-year students who experience mathematics anxiety, and have low scores in other domains, while third-year students are less anxious. The results also revealed more positive overall attitude to mathematics from specific categories of students, who also more frequently indicated parents and teachers as sources of support and encouragement for mathematics studies. Keywords: accounting; attitudes; mathematics; pre-service accounting teachers; teaching
Highlights
Accounting is a course taken by Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) commerce pre-service accounting teachers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
The composite or overall or Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (F-SMAS) total was calculated to provide an overall measure of attitude to mathematics
Examination of each domain mean indicated that students would be happy and proud to do well in mathematics; that they perceive usefulness of mathematics as important and relevant to their teaching job; that they feel that teachers, mothers and fathers are sources of encouragement, support and affirmation for their efforts in mathematics; that they see confidence in doing mathematics as important, along with the motivation that comes from success with challenging calculations in accounting
Summary
Accounting is a course taken by Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) commerce pre-service accounting teachers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The accounting course exposes pre-service accounting teachers to recording of business transactions and analysing and interpreting of financial information. Pre-service accounting teachers perform a variety of calculations in an accounting course: for example, calculating and comparing company financial ratios, calculating dividends for the year, and calculating provisional taxation, weighted average price, etc. Pre-service accounting teachers are scored and credited for showing calculations or workings and recoding in the correct journal. This study assumes, that there is a special relationship between success in accounting and competence in mathematics, since, as Naidoo (2011) points out, in both mathematics and accounting there is either a right or a wrong answer, the calculation of which demands that students work at a quick pace on exercises or assessments, creating circumstances for much anxiety
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