Sex-Differences In Attitude Towards Mathematics Of Junior High School Students In Ghana

Abstract

The study investigated junior high School (JHS) students’ attitudes
that affect their study of mathematics. Five hundred and eighty-one students selected from nine junior high schools in the Cape Coast Municipality in Ghana were involved in the study. The results of the analyses showed that both boys and girls at the JHS level had positive attitudes towards mathematics in all eight attitudinal dimensions. Both sexes did not see mathematics as a male dominated domain, with girls seeing it less a male domain than boys. Of the attitude variables, confidence in learning mathematics, mathematics anxiety and success in mathematics correlated most positively and significantly with the rest of the variables. A number of implications of the findings for improving JSS students’ attitudes are discussed.