Attitude towards mathematics

It is generally believed that students’ attitude towards a subject determines their success in that subject. In other words, favorable attitude result to good achievement in a subject. A student’s constant failure in a school subject and mathematics in particular can make him to believe that he can never do well on the subject thus accepting defeat. On the other hand, his successful experience can make him to develop a positive attitude towards learning the subject. This suggests that student’s attitude towards mathematics could be enhanced through effective teaching strategies. It has in fact been confirmed that effective teaching strategies can create positive attitude on the students towards school subjects.

Attitudes are psychological constructs theorized to be composed of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. Attitudes serve as functions including social expressions, value expressive, utilitarian, and defensive functions, for the people who hold them.  To change attitudes, the new attitudes must serve the same function as the old one. Instructional design can create instructional environments to effect attitude change. In the greater realm of social psychology, attitudes are typical classified with affective domain, and are part of the larger concept of motivation . Attitudes are connected to Bandura’s social cognitive learning theory as one of the personal factors that affect learning.

The definition of attitude depends on the purpose of the definition. Most attitudes researchers include the concept of evaluation as the basis for the definition. To Petty and Cacioppo attitude are general evaluations of people hold in regard for themselves, other people, object, and issues. To Greenwald, attitudes are pervasive, predict behaviors, are a force in perception and memory, and they serve various psychological functions. Though there is an ongoing debate about the structure of attitudes , however instructional designers have long assumed that attitudes is made up of three components; a cognitive component, an emotional component, and a behavioral component . The debate of the existence of the component structure of attitude may never be completely resolved because attitudes are constructs and are therefore not directly observable. The measurement of attitudes is inextricably tangled with theoretical debate on the nature of attitudes.

Social psychologists has notice that people respond to objects (ideas) with different degrees of positive to negative evaluations. Responses could be affective (e.g., frown or smiling);  cognitive (e.g., stating rational thoughts) or behavioral (clapping or running away). Social psychologists conceived of a driving force behind these responses, and name it –attitude. They proceeded to measure attitude by measuring what they conceived to be the effects of it. It is important to note that all responses are technically behaviors.

Definitions of attitude towards mathematics are numerous as researchers’ and thinkers’ conceptions, ideas and perspectives vary. According to a point of view, the attitude towards mathematics is just a positive or negative emotional disposition towards mathematics. Hart, considering attitudes towards mathematics from a multidimensional point define an individual’s attitude towards mathematics as a more complex way by the emotions that he/she associates with mathematics, his/her beliefs towards mathematics, which could be either positive or negative and how he/she behaves towards mathematics. Research on attitude in mathematics education has been motivated by the belief that ‘something’ called “attitude” plays a crucial role in learning mathematics but the goal of highlighting a connection between positive attitude and mathematics achievement has not been reached conclusively.

It is therefore imperative to continue to search for linkages between instructional methods that could facilitate the development of more positive attitude towards the learning of mathematics. Hence this research. Several studies in the area of mathematics have shown that instruction, especially at the secondary school level remains overwhelmingly teacher-centered, with greater emphasis being placed on lecturing and textbook than on helping students to think critical across subject area and applying their knowledge to read-worlds situation. There is a need to adopt some of the recent reform-based instructional strategies, along with some traditional practices that have been overlooked and underutilized in secondary mathematics (National Council of Teachers’ of Mathematics, 2000). Such practices include individual exploration, peer interaction, and small group work each of which emphasizes the use of multiple approaches to problem solving, active student inquiry, and the importance of linking mathematics to students’ daily life. 

A key component in reform is the movement from traditional to reform instructional practices in mathematics is the importance of examining the effects and relationship among types of instructional practices that student receives and their resulting achieving and attitudes towards mathematics. Studies related to instructional practices and academic achievement have suggested that the quality of teachers’ instructional messages affects children’s task involvement and subsequent learning in mathematics . The National Council of Teacher of Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) has advocated for the development of inquiry- based mathematics tradition. According to Fennema, Carpenter, and Peterson, students who experience this reform tradition are encouraged to explore, develop conjectures, prove, and solve problem. The assumption is that student learns best by resolving problematic situations that challenge them through conceptual understanding. In the study by Stein, Grover, & Henninssen , investigated the use of enhanced instructions as a means of building student capacity for mathematics thinking and reasoning concluded that students must first be provided with opportunities, encouragement, and assistance before they can engage in thinking, reasoning, and sense making in mathematics classroom. Consistent engagement in such thinking practices, they maintained, should lead students to a deeper understanding of mathematics as well as increased ability to demonstrate complex problem solving, reasoning, and communication skill upon assessment of learning outcomes. They concluded that the tasks used in mathematics classroom highly influence the kinds of thinking processes students employ, which in turn influence learning outcomes. Perhaps this is the reason why the mode of questioning in mathematics classroom becomes relevant.

It is therefore imperative for teachers to appreciate and inculcate in students positive attitude towards mathematics by using improved and appropriate instructional strategy. It is believed that the lack of specific directives has one way or the other hindered learning achievement among students.