Attitude towards physics and additional mathematics achievement towards physics achievement

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to identify the difference in students' attitude towards Physics and Additional Mathematics achievement based on gender and relationship between attitudinal variables towards Physics and Additional Mathematics achievement with achievement in Physics. This research focused on six variables, which is attitude towards Physics, career related to Physics, importance of Physics, difficulty of understanding Physics, Physics teachers and Physics equipment usage. The respondents consist of 203 Grade 10 students in science stream who are taking Physics as an elective subject. This research was done in secondary schools in the district of Kota Bharu, Kelantan. A questionnaire was used to gather the data regarding six aspects (24 items). The items from Prokop, Tuncer, and Chuda (2007) were translated and used to determine the students' attitude towards Physics. The findings showed a significant difference in students' interest towards Physics, career related to Physics, importance of Physics, difficulty of understanding Physics, Physics teachers and Physics equipment usage whereby the male students are higher compared to female students. Meanwhile there was no difference between students' attitude towards the importance of Physics and achievement in Additional Mathematics. There is a strong relationship between Additional Mathematics achievement and Physics achievement followed by interest towards Physics and difficulty of understanding Physics. Meanwhile the relationship between students' attitude towards career related to Physics, importance of Physics, Physics teacher and Physics equipment usage is not significant towards Physics achievement. Physics teachers should give more emphasis in not only the learning of Physics but more importantly on students' attitude towards the learning of Physics.