For Students Who Dislike Mathematics

For students who dislike mathematics, is there a particular reason? Craig Lester Problem - Having a negative attitude toward mathematics may be related to achievement of math students. If students don't like math, they may be able to struggle through the classes and make good grades, but the long-term effect will probably be that they will not pursue the subject any more than they have to. They will certainly not pursue a career in a math related field. Math Anxiety - Suinn and Richardson (1972) found that mathematics anxiety may prevent students from pursuing higher-level math courses Several studies have proposed that math anxiety has two dimensions: affective (nervousness, tension, dread, fear) and cognitive (worry). (Wigfield and Meece, 1988) Motivation - “increasing students’ interest in mathematics may result in higher quality of experience while doing mathematics and in higher levels of achievement and knowledge.” Wiess (cited in Schiefele & Csikszentmihalyi, 1995) Attitude - Stipek et al. (1998) found “a positive affective climate that promoted risk-taking was positively associated with students’ mastery orientation, help-seeking, and positive emotions associated with learning fractions.” “Students’ feeling of relatedness to their teachers was strong predictors of their cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement in classroom activities” (Stipek et al., 1998, p. 483). “students' continued exposure to unchallenging and rote instruction could lead to the development of a negative attitude toward mathematics and increased cynicism toward the applicability of mathematics to their own lives” (Greenwood 1984, cited in Wilkins & MA, 2003)

Dislike – Negative attitude- Ineffective teaching, Boredom, teacher relatedness, negative classroom affect.