Je li matematika bauk? Stavovi, uvjerenja i strah od matematike kod gimnazijalaca
Is Math Something Scary? Attitudes and Beliefs toward Math and Math Anxiety in Secondary School Students

Summary/Abstract: In the study the authors investigated what general attitudes secondary school students have toward mathematics, whether they see it as a male domain, whether they think that math abilities are inborn and whether they experience math anxiety. The participants in the study were students from all four classes of two language oriented and one science-oriented secondary school (N=510). Two scales were used in the study: Scale for measuring attitudes and beliefs toward math and Scale for measuring math anxiety. Looking at the sample as a whole, results show that participants have neutral attitudes toward mathematics, that they mostly do not believe that math abilities are inborn and that they do not agree that math is more a male than female domain. Results show that science-oriented students, in comparison to language- oriented ones, have somewhat more positive attitudes toward math and that they believe less that math abilities are inborn. In respect to the belief that math is more a male domain, results show that students as a whole do not agree with this belief. Such disagreement is more pronounced in girls and science- -oriented students than in boys and language-oriented students. In the whole sample, math anxiety is rather low in intensity, and it is somewhat stronger in language-oriented students and girls.

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