Academic Mathematics Research Articles

A Factor-Analytic Study of Mathematics Anxiety

Responses from 491 university students largely from non-technical majors were obtained for 21 personality scales, five scales reflecting attitudes toward mathematics and six personal characteristics. Factor analysis of the personality and mathematics attitude variables revealed that scores on four of the five mathematics attitude scales (one of which was entitled Math Anxiety) were strongly related to a single, underlying attitude toward mathematics. This underlying variable was in turn substantially related to mathematics level attained in high school, general academic achievement (GPA) and current mathematics grade. This global mathematics attitude factor was essentially unrelated to sex or any of the personality variables. Sex was, however, weakly related to the fifth mathematics attitude variable, which reflected the degree of desirability which subjects assigned to personal success in mathematics. Females tended to be more negative in this regard.

Another Look at Attitudes of Junior High School Pupils toward Arithmetic

Previous articleNext article No AccessAnother Look at Attitudes of Junior High School Pupils toward ArithmeticWilbur H. DuttonWilbur H. Dutton Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Elementary School Journal Volume 68, Number 5Feb., 1968 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/460444 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 5Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:James L. Milson Geometry and the Real World, School Science and Mathematics 79, no.88 (Dec 1979): 695–700.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-8594.1979.tb13935.xHilary L. Schofield, K. B. Start Mathematics Attitudes and Achievement among Student Teachers, Australian Journal of Education 22, no.11 (Mar 1978): 72–82.https://doi.org/10.1177/000494417802200106Ralph D. Norman Sex Differences in Attitudes toward Arithmetic-Mathematics from Early Elementary School to College Levels, The Journal of Psychology 97, no.22 (Jul 2010): 247–256.https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1977.9923970Elizabeth W. Haven FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SELECTION OF ADVANCED ACADEMIC MATHEMATICS COURSES BY GIRLS IN HIGH SCHOOL, ETS Research Bulletin Series 1972, no.11 (Aug 2014): i–67.https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2333-8504.1972.tb00437.xLewis R. Aiken Attitudes Toward Mathematics, Review of Educational Research 40, no.44 (Jun 2016): 551–596.https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543040004551

Attitudes of Junior High School Pupils toward Arithmetic

Attitudes of Junior High School Pupils toward Arithmetic

Mathematics for the Engineer

AT the joint session of Sections A (Mathematics) and G (Engineering) of the British Association meeting, held last September, it was stated in a discussion on "Applicable Mathematics" that "Mathematics as an integral part of engineering science ovolyed to satisfy the demands of the science, and should be used by the engineer as one of the tools of his trade" ; and later in the discussion the point emerged that "the engineer's main difficulty lies in the translation of his engineering problem into mathematical terms, and then, on finding a solution, in translating that solution into an engineering solution". Commenting upon this, a later speaker stressed the desirability of the enlightened teacher of mathematics being able to speak the engineer's language. There should be very little difficulty about this, for the modern trend of much mathematical literature is to produce books having a practical bias. Thus the old artificial barrier between academic mathematics and the more modern mathematics applied to the sciences is gradually being broken down. Applied Differential Equations By Prof. F. E. Relton. Pp. viii + 264. (London, Glasgow and Bombay: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1948.) 20s. net.

The Problem of a Non-College Preparatory Curriculum in Mathematics and Suggestions for Its Solution

Most mathematics teachers have been aware that the non-college student has been neglected so far as getting his rightful share of mathematics has been concerned. In most instances the awareness was passed passed off with a shrug of the shoulders and the blame for not establishing these courses, passed onto some one else. The need has become so acute that the tail is wagging the dog and it would seem that some action may be taken to aid in solving the problem. If you will check the number of graduates in your high school and the number of these graduates who enter college, you will find that only about 15% of the group go on to college. It must be admitted then, that we have constructed our mathematics curriculum largely for the 15% and the remaining 85% have received little or no consideration in mathematics and most of that was a make shift, hit or miss proposition. In some high schools, it is possible for a pupil to graduate without being required to pursue any class in mathematics. If a search were made, I suspect that many more high schools are permitting this situation than we know. Mathematics teachers as a group are rather complacent and hold the dignity of their profession on a high plane. This is as it should be. Since we are supposed to know the meaning of facts as expressed in figures, then we must admit that 85% of a graduating class is a greater responsibility than 15% of the class. To reach 85% of the class, I hope that we will bestir ourselves from this smug complacency in academic mathematics and lend a helping hand to those who need, but seldom get any mathematics. We must become mathematical missionaries and carry the gospel truth to the majority who need aid in mathematics other than that prescribed for the selected few who go to college. We must show the way or continue to see school subjects with less concrete usefulness and more aggressive leaders reducing our mathematics time in the curriculum.

Mathematical Technology or Quantitative Mathematics

WE publish in this issue an article by A. Erdelyi add John Todd, entitled “Advanced Instruction on Practical Mathematics”, which follows an earlier article by D. H. Sadler and John Todd (Nature of Ma, p. 571), “Mathematics in Government Servge and Industry: some Deductions from the War-time Experience of the Admiralty Computing Service”. They claim that it has now been fully demonstrated that there is a need, in Government departments such as the Admiralty, the Ministry of Supply and Aircraft Production, and in industrial research associations or research departments of engineering or other firms, for a new type of mathematician, whom Dr. N". W. MacLachlan has called a ‘mathematical technologist’. Such a man will have a good knowledge of academic mathematics, but in addition will know how to apply this knowledge to obtain a complete approximate solution, with full numerical calculations, of an engineering or. other problem. Much of modern academic mathematics is of a qualitative nature. We prove that a solution of a problem exists, under certain conditions, and that this solution has certain properties, such as breaking down at specified exceptional points. The mathematical technologist will not be ignorant of this, but will supplement it with detailed quantitative knowledge, giving all the information required to any desired degree of approximation. So far the universities of Great Britain have done little or nothing to produce such men. What should be done about it?

Shall We Accept the Two Years of Required Academic Mathematics as a Right, a Ritual, or a Challenge?

To present this question to a meeting of this kind seems rather like bearing coals to Newcastle. The mere fact that we have gathered here from all parts of the United States is in itself an answer to the question as far as you and I are concerned. That year after year these meetings are possible is because of our one interest in common, namely mathematics, and surely this is indicative of the fact that we have felt the challenge and are seeking an answer. Relatively speaking, however, we are a very small portion of that great body of teachers of mathematics. This brings us to the question, are we content to sit back and do nothing after having felt the challenge? To ask that question is more or less like the old darky camp meeting song with its repetition of “Has you been redeemed? Has you been redeemed?” and the every ready response, “Yas Lawd.” We have come to this camp meeting either because we are seeking the light or because we have been redeemed or think we have. But have we? I wonder how many of us are active converts and how many are merely passive onlookers. The trouble is that just as the newly made convert either must take an active interest in his church or he is apt to fall from grace, so with us we either go forward or we fall back into old practices. That is one of the laws of human nature. I sometimes wonder how many of us, the lay members of our profession, are content to go through the exhilaration of being led to see the light only to drop back into the old rut once more. We forget the temporary thrill we received until the next camp meeting and then once more seek the mercy seat with the same lack of change. It becomes a rhythmic cycle of repentance and back sliding which is repeated over and over again.

XII. Desultory remarks on academic and non-academic mathematics and mathematicians

XII. <i>Desultory remarks on academic and non-academic mathematics and mathematicians</i>