The Relationship between Gender, Age, and Attitude toward Mathematics among Malaysian Gifted Students

Abstract

Students’ attitude is one of the elements that call for discussion in providing gifted ed- ucation for gifted students. Specifically, students’ attitude towards particular subjects contribute to their achievements in those subjects. This paper highlights students’ atti- tude within the scope of mathematics. In Malaysia education system, mathematics is one of the core subjects and needs to be mastered by students to achieve excellence in learning. Thus, the mastery of mathematics among gifted students should be studied and discussed especially of their attitude towards mathematics. This paper presents the results of a study that examines the relationship between age, gender and attitude of gifted students towards mathematics based on their interest towards mathematics. A total of 128 gifted students aged 11 until 16 years old participated in the study. All of the students were selected from various Malaysian public schools via a special selec- tion process before becoming full time students at Malaysia National Gifted Centre. The findings reveal that there was no relationship between age, gender and attitude of the gifted students toward mathematics