Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales Research Articles

Positive attitudes toward mathematics among senior high school students in Cape Coast Metropolis

The study involved 2,575 students selected through a combination of probability and non-probability sampling procedures. Explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used. Participants completed the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales (FSMAS) to provide the quantitative data for the research. The qualitative data were gathered through interviews. The arithmetic mean from the survey data for each of the students was used to shortlist 140 students for focus group interviews. The findings revealed that some of the impetuses that drive the respondents’ positive attitudes towards mathematics were mathematics as a compulsory subject, good teaching strategies by teachers, the utility of mathematics, career aspirations, and encouragement from parents, guardian or peers. The study recommended that stakeholders should encourage, enhance and promote these factors. Teachers, educators, and researchers are encouraged to dig deeper to unearth more of such factors.

Investigating groupings in pre-service accounting teachers’ attitudes towards mathematics

Background: A distinct mathematics proficiency is required in the study of accounting. The students’ success depends on attitudes towards mathematics that influence the participation rate of students in accounting modules.Aim: The main aim of the study was to investigate groupings in pre-service accounting teachers’ attitudes towards mathematics.Setting: The setting of the study was a higher education institution (HEI). This study was based on a survey of pre-service accounting teachers about their attitudes towards mathematicsMethods: This study used Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (F-SMAS). A convenient sample of the study was 255 Bachelor of Education (Accounting) students (first year = 143, second year = 77 and third year = 35). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with p 0.050 level of significance.Results: The study found that mathematical ability, family, home context and geographical location were significant factors in determining attitudes towards mathematics and subsequent study of accounting.Conclusion: The study offers practical insights to navigate attitudes towards mathematics of students with the aim of setting mathematics support interventions given the several challenge students encounter in mathematics.

Factors Affecting Mathematics Achievement In Central Asian Specialized Universities

This study examines variables explaining student’s academic performances in mathematics from specialized engineering institutions. A survey consisting of 42 items was conducted from 127 students and statistical multiple regression was carried out to analyze the data set. Based on Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales followed by the result of stepwise linear regression, found a significant impact of high school geometry grades in mathematics performance. Au-thors suggest that mathematics instructors in higher education should pay attention to improve their student’s confidence, which in turn would decrease the anxiety level towards mathematics. The high school teachers should not advise their students to go to technical sciences in higher education unless the student’s confidence and high school math grade are sufficiently high

Fennema - Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales: Adaptaition to Turkish Culture

The aim of this study is to adapt the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales developed by Fennema and Sherman in 1976 to Turkish language and culture. Data were collected from 1123 middle-school students and 967 high-school students a in order to adapt the scale to Turkish culture. The scale was first translated from its original version in English to Turkish by three linguists, and then the translation was revised upon consultation with two domain experts and one measurement and evaluation expert. None of the scale items were discarded during these stages. The construct validity of the Turkish translation of the scale was examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis was conducted using Item Analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha, internal consistency coefficient, and split-half correlation. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability calculations were conducted on SPSS 20.0, and the confirmatory factor analysis calculations were conducted on the Lisrel 8.7 software package. Following the validity and reliability studies, the scale is composed of nine subscales and 108 items as in the original form. As a result of the adaptation of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales, a valid and reliable scale suitable for Turkish and Turkish cultures was obtained.

Pre-service accounting teachers’ attitudes to mathematics

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

Using the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales with lower-primary teachers

The Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales (FSMAS) are among the most popular instruments used in studies of attitudes toward mathematics. However, the FSMAS has been mainly used among student populations and rarely used with teachers. In the present study, three scales from the FSMAS—Confidence, Effectance Motivation, and Anxiety—were revised and used with lower-primary (kindergarten to third grade) teachers. This study includes three parts: (1) a pilot study to ensure the modifications made to the FSMAS were appropriate to use with teachers, (2) confirmatory factor analyses to assess the factor structure of the revised FSMAS with 225 lower-primary teachers, and (3) measurement invariance analyses using data from a similar sample of 171 lower-primary teachers to examine whether the revised FSMAS measures each construct in the same way as in the previous sample. The final three-factor model, after removing three problematic items, achieves acceptable model fit, with each construct meeting all conditions for strict measurement invariance. Additionally, repeated measures analyses were performed on data collected from 39 in-service lower-primary teachers who participated in an elementary mathematics specialist program to examine the use of the revised FSMAS in program evaluation. Overall results suggest that researchers and program evaluators may use the revised FSMAS to reliably measure lower-primary teachers’ mathematical attitudes, and it can be a valuable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of professional development programs.

Incorporating Diagnostic Aspects to Mathematical Affects Inventory Development

Many measures have been developed for the affective domain in mathematics, such as the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (1976), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2003), and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2007). However, it is difficult to find an inventory of affective attributes in mathematics that includes all affective factors based on recent theories. And affective attributes cannot be strictly differentiated, so one item can measure several factors. Thus, cognitive diagnosis theory was applied to this study, in which each item of assessment test can be allocated several attributes. The purpose of this study is to develop a Mathematical Affects Inventory (MAI) that measures student’s specific affective attributes and to verify MAI using Cognitive Diagnosis Theory. Research results will report some statistical information with affective profile of Korean students i.e. the mathematical affects of individual students DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v2i4.2887

Fearless Improvisation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the confidence, anxiety, and attitude of novice string student improvisers. A form of the Fennema–Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales, as modified for improvisation by Wehr-Flowers, was given to middle school and high school string students ( N = 121) after their participation in a 4-month improvisation curriculum. Whereas females in Wehr-Flowers’s study were found to be significantly less confident than males in either study, the confidence level of females in the current study was not significantly different from any other group. Females in both studies were significantly more anxious toward improvisation than males, and the results of the attitude comparisons were inconclusive. The higher confidence level of females in the current study may have resulted from the different populations studied, maturation/history effects, or exposure to a curriculum specifically designed to build confidence and allay fears toward improvisation.

SHORTENED VERSIONS OF FENNEMA-SHERMAN MATHEMATIC ATTITUDE SCALES EMPLOYING TRACE INFORMATION

This paper aimed at providing a simple and direct method for shortening the lengthy 108-item Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales (FSMAS). The method proposed uses the trace information (widely used in other popular procedures such as principal component analysis and regression analysis) as the criterion for item selection. Results for half-length FSMAS versions (54 items) constructed using the trace-information criterion compared favourably with Mulhern and Rae's (1998) 51-item FSMAS short form. But unlike the later short form, our method retained as much variance as possible in the original 108-items and maximized the correlations, and hence predictive validity, with the full-length FSMAS version. The appropriateness of selecting items from a larger item pool based on employing a trace-information criterion is discussed within the context of the domain-sampling model.

New Perspectives on the Gender Stereotyping of Mathematics

Historically, mathematics has been stereotyped as a male domain, and there is considerable evidence to support this belief. In the last 30 years, mathematics education researchers have uncovered a range of factors contributing to the documented achievement and participation differences that favored males and sought to redress them. Mathematics as a male domain, one of the subscales of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales (1976), has been used widely to assess the extent to which mathematics is stereotyped as a masculine sphere. It has been argued that some of the items comprising the subscale are anachronistic and that the subscale scores can no longer be interpreted reliably. In this article we outline the development of two new instruments-the mathematics as a gendered domain instrument and the who and mathematics instrument-that have been designed to overcome the limitations of the original Fennema-Sherman mathematics as a male domain subscale. We also present findings from the administration of the two instruments in Australia, where they were developed, and in the United States, the site of the trials of the original Fennema-Sherman scales. The results indicate that females feel more strongly than males about some aspects of gender stereotyping in mathematics although, in general, most students feel that mathematics is gender neutral.

Science process skills and attitudes of preservice elementary teachers

This study was conducted to describe the relationship between preservice elementary teachers' competency in science process skills and their attitudes toward science. The instrument selected to measure science process skills was the Test of Integrated Process Skills II (TIPSII). A revision of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (SAS) was used as a predictor of the subjects' attitudes toward science. The SAS consisted of six subscales also examined in the study. The hypothesis for the study stated that elementary preservice teachers who demonstrated a high competency in process skills would also indicate positive attitudes toward science. The data was collected while subjects were enrolled in an elementary math and science methods course during their first senior semester just before student teaching. Analysis of the data indicated a significant positive correlation between elementary preservice teachers' ability to perform science process skills and their attitudes toward science. Upon analyzing the data collected on the six subscales, a significant positive correlation was found between the TIPS II and the Confidence in Learning Science Scale and the Teacher Scale.

The Fennema-Sherman Mathematics as a Male Domain Scale Reexamined

The Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales (MAS) have been used extensively in research on gender differences in learning outcomes. The MAS comprise 9 scales measuring attitudes related to learning, including Mathematics as a Male Domain. The construct mathematics as a male domain remains a critical variable in explorations of the continued disadvantage experienced by females in the field of mathematics. We present recent research evidence that indicates that several items in the Mathematics as a Male Domain scale of the MAS

Development of a Shortened form of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales

Data from 196 Irish school children were analyzed using principal components analysis with a varimax rotation to determine whether the underlying factor structure of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (FSMAS) fit the dimensions suggested by the position of the 108 items on nine subscales. Results indicated a factor structure virtually identical to a previous study that used a different sample, with the items being reduced to six separate components rather than nine as suggested by the scales' developers. Based on this factor structure, the authors attempted the development of a shortened form of the FSMAS. Internal consistency estimates of the reliability of scores on the whole scale and each subscale for both the original and the short form were favorable, with alpha coefficients ranging from .79 to .96.

Gender and Mathematical Problem Solving.

The relationship between gender and mathematical problem-solving among high ability students depends on the attributes of the problem solving questions. This was evident in the present study of 12-year-olds. The children were from predominately White families. Eighty-three males and 76 females were tested in both the fall and the spring on the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales and on the Canadian Test of Basic Skills (CTBS). In the Spring, students were also tested on the GAUSS. Both the CTBS and the GAUSS measure mathematical problem solving. Among high ability students, there were gender differences on the problem-solving scale of the CTBS but not on the GAUSS, even though the GAUSS was independently rated as the more abstract and difficult of the two tests. The present study describes the implications of this for the question of the origin of gender differences in mathematics, and also looked at the relationship between attitudes toward mathematics and mathematical problem-solving performance.

Measurement Integrity of Scores from the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales: The Attitudes of Public School Teachers

The Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales are among the most popular measures used in studies of attitudes toward mathematics. However, the measurement integrity of the scores produced by the measure has not yet been conclusively established. The present study explored this measurement integrity issue by employing data provided by public elementary school teachers of mathematics. Both the measure's factor structure and the measure's sensitivity to social desirability response set were investigated.

Anxiety and Mathematics Performance in Female Secondary School Students in Singapore

This is an exploratory study conducted on mathematics anxiety, test anxiety and some interpersonal correlates with mathematics achievement of a sample of 206 Secondary Four female students from a Singapore school. Spielbergers' (1977) Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) and the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (Fennema-Sherman, 1976) were the instruments us ed. Some significant findings are: high mathematics anxiety is associated with low mathematics achievement and so is high test anxiety with low mathematics achievement. However, for the most capable students, test anxiety seems to act as a facilitator in their mathematics performance. Of the three interpersonal variables explored, students' scores on the perception of their mathematics teachers have the strongest correlation with their mathematics anxiety scores.

Affective Variables and Mathematics Education

to general feelings such as liking/disliking of mathematics, nor is it meant to exclude perceptions of the difficulty, usefulness, and appropriateness of mathematics as a school subject. There are several ways affective variables are related to mathematics learning. It is likely that a student who feels very positive about mathematics will achieve at a higher level than a student who has a negative attitude toward mathematics. It is also likely that a high achiever will enjoy mathematics more than a student who

The relationship of mathematics self-efficacy expectations to the selection of science-based college majors

The major purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship of mathematics self-efficacy expectations to the selection of science-based majors in college males and females. Based on results obtained from a pilot sample of college students, an instrument assessing mathematics self-efficacy expectations was developed. The items used in the mathematics self-efficacy scale included everyday math tasks, math problems, and math-based college courses. Subjects, 153 female and 109 male undergraduates, completed the mathematics self-efficacy scale, the Bem Sex Role Inventory, an adapted version of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales, and a questionnaire concerning their college major choices. Results indicated that mathematics self-efficacy expectations were significantly related to the extent to which students selected science-based college majors, thus supporting the postulated role of cognitive mediational factors in educational and career choice behavior. In addition, the math-related self-efficacy expectations of college males were significantly stronger than were those of college females. Implications of the findings for the process of educational and career decision-making are discussed.

Girls Talk About Mathematics and Their Future: A Partial Replication

Grade 11 girls ( n = 63) who had previously been extensively tested in Grade 8 were interviewed and readministered the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales II. Girls who had enrolled in three years of the college preparatory math sequence were contrasted with those who had taken two years. The groups were equated on three cognitive measures as assessed in Grade 8. Results confirmed previous research in these ways: “fear of success” in math became less from Grade 8 to Grade 11; girls continuing in math had more positive attitudes toward math, came from more favored environments, were closer to parents and more influenced by them. Most girls planned to combine work, marriage and children, but plans were poorly articulated in relationship to each other; 29% would play dumb while 76% said other girls do. Results demonstrate developing sex-role strain.

Factors Predicting Girls' and Boys' Enrollment in College Preparatory Mathematics

Students ( n = 337) tested in the eighth grade were followed up in the eleventh grade to see what courses in the college preparatory math sequence they had elected. Discriminant analyses for girls and boys were performed on the test scores, predicting those electing one, two, three, or four years of college preparatory math. Scores included math achievement (SRA Math Concepts), vocabulary (Cognitive Abilities Test), spatial visualization (Differential Aptitude Test) and the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales II. For girls, the standardized weights of the discriminant function were highest for vocabulary, Confidence in Learning Mathematics, Attitude toward Success in Math, and Effectance Motivation in Mathematics. For boys, they were highest for Confidence in Learning Mathematics, vocabulary, perceived Attitude of Father toward One as a Learner of Mathematics, and Math Concepts. Consistent with results of a previous study, the Confidence in Learning Mathematics Scale emerged as a powerful discriminator of groups differing in mathematics enrollment behavior. Spatial visualization skill was a more important discriminator for females than for males.