A Study on the Investigation of the University Students’ Anxiety and Attitudes toward Mathematics: Erzurum Sample

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the university students’ their anxiety and attitudes toward mathematics. The students who attend the Faculty of Education at Ataturk University in 2003 - 2004 academic years formed the universe of the study. As to the sample group of the study, 159 students who study four different majors in the Faculty of Education took part in the study. The measurement of Math Anxiety and the Measurement of Attitudes towards Mathematics were used as the data collection instruments in the study. The findings of the study are as follows: There was no difference between female and male students in their anxiety about mathematics. The marks of mathematics anxiety varied according to the students’ levels of class and the most liked and the least liked courses.  Their anxiety did not differ in relation with the school they graduated from and the occupation of the students’ fathers. In addition, the attitudes of both female and male students, in terms of the benefits of the perceived mathematics, the attitudes of the parents towards mathematics showed a difference which developed in favor of the female students. The attitudes seeing mathematics as an area for the male students indicated the opposite for the female students. The results also revealed that there existed no difference between female and male students with reference to the perceived anxiety, the sub dimension of talent and the attitudes towards mathematics classes. The results of the attitudes towards mathematics concerning the variables of the level of the university year they attend and the most liked and the least liked courses.  Were found statistically significant. It was also observed that the attitudes towards mathematics were not statistically significant in consideration with the school the students graduated from and the occupation their fathers have been doing.