Effects of gender and school type on attitudes towards mathematics

Abstract

Attitude and perception plays a crucial role in the learning of mathematics. This study was designed to investigate the different attitudes towards mathematics at the secondary school level. The purpose of this study is to find out the students attitude towards mathematics based on their individual genders and their school type i.e. single sex or coeducational school. The sample consisted of 180 secondary school students across three schools. A questionnaire was used to examine the attitudes towards mathematics by asking questions related to self-confidence in doing mathematics and perception about the usefulness of mathematics. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was utilized to analyze the collected data. The results highlight differences in attitude towards mathematics between boys and girls that are more pronounced when they are in different school types. Moreover, we propose using a fuzzy concept for the measurement of Likert-type scale to measure student attitudes toward mathematics.