Influence of girls’ attitude performance in mathematics

Attitude towards school subject is very important to learning. Gender bias by society’s stereotyping of mathematics as a male domain, which has often been used to explain females’ lower performance and participation in mathematics (Mondoh 2001). There is a common belief that positive attitude and particular liking for, and interest in mathematics often leads to greater effort and in turn higher achievement (Ng’eno 2005). Various studies on the relationship between attitude and achievement have been done. Fennema & Leder (1990) found that when a gender difference in mathematics achievement in favor of males was observed it was followed by gender difference in confidence in favor of males. The value of mathematics to a female learner can be affected by whether or not she thinks studying mathematics is a sexrole appropriate activity. The value of mathematics to a girl can be affected by whether or not she thinks studying mathematics is inappropriate for females, and then her achievement in mathematics could result in a perception that she has not adequately fulfilled her sex role.

Hyde and Mertz (2009) in their study on gender, culture and performance reported that boys and girls acquire early number concepts similarly in preschool years and performance throughout elementary school is similar. They however noted that the boys’ skills in mathematics increased faster than girls by around twelve years of age creating a significant gender gap in performance in high school. They noted that women are willing and able to learn the mathematics needed for advanced degrees in these areas when provided with appropriate socio-cultural environment along with education and career opportunities. The current study established the differences in teachers’ perception of their preparedness to implement secondary school mathematics by gender.

The prevailing stereotype is that mathematics is a male domain and therefore a very appropriate subject for male students’ achievement. Studies have demonstrated that males attributed success to ability and more strongly than did the females whereas attributed success to effort and luck more strongly than the males (Fennema & Leder 1990). It should be noted that a student who attribute success to ability has every reason to expect success since ability will remain relatively constant however a student who attributes success to luck has no such assurance since luck by its nature is outside one’s control