A study of mathematical anxiety, mathematical self-confidence and the attitude towards usefulness of mathematics, in students of administrative careers at a private costa rican university
Keywords:
Mathematical anxiety, Mathematical self-confidence, Attitude towards mathematics, Administrative careers, Private universityAbstract
In this article, the results of a descriptive and correlational quantitative research are presented, which addressed as variables "mathematical anxiety", "mathematical self-confidence" and "attitude towards usefulness of mathematics" in students of administrative careers at a university private of Costa Rica, analyzing the existence of differences by sex, career or mathematics course. The research was carried out in the third quarter of 2017 with a sample of 290, from a population of 370 students, who enrolled in math courses in that period. Three subscales of Fennema-Sherman's (1976) Scale of Attitude Towards Mathematics were used as measurement instruments: "Mathematical anxiety", "Mathematical self-confidence" and "Attitude towards the usefulness of mathematics". The results suggest the existence of differences by sex in the variable "mathematical self-confidence", with men having the highest average level, with moderate effect size. Differences by sex were also detected in the
“attitude towards the usefulness of mathematics”, with women showing higher levels on average, with a moderate effect size. In addition, there are differences by sex in the average levels of "mathematical anxiety", where women experience greater anxiety, with a moderate effect size. There are differences in the level of “mathematical anxiety” between the students
of Mathematics II and Statistics I, between the students of Statistics II and Mathematics I and between the students of Mathematics I and Statistics I. There is a positive and moderate correlation between the “attitude towards the usefulness of mathematics” and “mathematical self-confidence”. In addition, an inverse and moderate relationship is presented between the
"attitude towards the usefulness of Mathematics" and "mathematical anxiety", and between "mathematical anxiety" and "mathematical self-confidence".
