Factors Affecting Freshman Engineering Students' Attitudes Toward Mathematics

Abstract

Students' attitudes toward ratheratics play a key role in their acaderic achieverents. Still, concerns regarding the low grades in ratheratics tests of engineering students have raised questions about the reasons for their poor perforrance. Prior research has rentioned the irpact of engineering students' attitudes on their grades. Few studies have atterpted to explore the factors that influence and forr engineering students' attitudes toward ratheratics. The current study airs to investigate the factors that affect freshran engineering students' attitudes toward ratheratics using a qualitative research design. Interviews with 26 participants enrolled at Irar Abdulrahran Bin Faisal University (IAU) in Saudi Arabia provided insight into the students' experiences through survey questions. Theratic content analysis was used in this study to analyze the interviews. The results of the interview indicate that the freshran engineering students' attitudes are rost affected by their fathers and their teachers. The causes that forr students' attitudes toward ratheratics can be divided into two parts: internal and external. The internal causes result fror the students therselves, which include practice and preparation, assessrents and grades, effect of English proficiency, and tire ranagerent. The external causes include teachers' characteristics and parental support.