Pupils’ Attitude Towards Learning Mathematics Subject in Nkasi District Primary Schools

Abstract

An attitude is all about emotions, beliefs, and behaviors toward a particular object, person, thing, or event. It is the result of experience. Attitude has a powerful influence over learning. The study aimed at determining attitudes of pupils towards learning mathematics, and thereupon establish possible linkages between attitudes and performance. A cross-sectional survey study was employed to answer two research questions. The questionnaires, focused group discussion, semi-structured interviews and documentary review were used to gather information from 320 pupils and 77 teachers. The descriptive statistics in contingence tabulation used to test the association of the results at 5% level of association. The findings show that the majority of pupils have positive attitude toward learning mathematics subject. Similarly, a large number of teachers have positive attitude towards pupils learning mathematics subject. Nevertheless, pupils’ attitude towards learning mathematics was not directly linked to their academic performance. Poor performance was found to be caused by poor teaching and learning environment in primary schools. In due regard, further research is needed in the same study in other districts of Tanzania for comparative reason and generalization. For the immediate action, the government should facilitate empowerment of mathematics teachers through short courses, seminars, workshops and any other professional development programmes in order to improve their ability in teaching the subject. Furthermore, teaching and learning environment should be improved for effective learning.