Demographic Factors Affecting Freshman Engineering Students’ Attitudes Toward Mathematics at a University in Saudi Arabia
Abstract
This study of freshman engineering students enrolled at Imam Abdulrahman Bin
Faisal University (IAU) in Saudi Arabia investigated the relationship between the
students’ attitudes and their demographic characteristics. Specifically, the study
assessed the relationship between students’ demographic characteristics and how
the characteristics related to five variables associated with attitudes toward
mathematics: attitude toward success in mathematics, confidence in learning
mathematics, mathematics anxiety, awareness of the usefulness of mathematics,
and effectance motivation in mathematics. A total number of 157 male students
enrolled in Calculus 1 participated in the survey. Findings revealed that the
freshman engineering students had positive attitudes toward mathematics;
furthermore, the results indicated that there are positive relationships between the
fathers’ career types and all the five attitudes of the students toward mathematics.
Also, the mothers’ career types and geographical regions had a positive relationship
with students’ confidence in learning mathematics. In contrast, the findings
indicated that there are a negative relationship between mothers’ educational levels
and two of the students’ attitudes (confidence in learning mathematics and mathematics anxiety). Similarly, students’ attitudes toward success in mathematics
were also impacted by their nationalities.
Interviews with 26 participants helped the researcher to discover students’ ideas
about the survey's questions in greater depth. The results of the interview indicate
that the freshman engineering students’ attitudes are more affected by their fathers
and their teachers. The reasons that form students’ attitudes toward mathematics
can be divided into two parts: internal and external. The internal reasons result
from the students themselves, which includes practice and preparation, assessments
and grades, English language effect, time management, pride in themselves,
competition with their colleagues, weak mathematical foundation, consideration of
mathematics as a favorite subject, pressure of other courses, awareness of the
relationship between mathematics in their daily lives and mathematics within other
scientific subjects, awareness of the relationship between mathematics and their
engineering major, and awareness of the benefit of mathematics in their future
careers. The external reasons include teachers’ characteristics, parental support, and
respect from their fathers.