Post-primary students’ images of mathematics: findings from a survey of Irish ordinary level mathematics students

Ciara Lane, Martin Stynes, John O'Donoghue

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A questionnaire survey was carried out as part of a PhD research study to investigate the image of mathematics held by post-primary students in Ireland. The study focused on students in fifth year of post-primary education studying ordinary level mathematics for the Irish Leaving Certificate examination – the final examination for students in second-level or post-primary education. At the time this study was conducted, ordinary level mathematics students constituted approximately 72% of Leaving Certificate students. Students were aged between 15 and 18 years. A definition for ‘image of mathematics’ was adapted from Lim and Wilson, with image of mathematics hypothesized as comprising attitudes, beliefs, self-concept, motivation, emotions and past experiences of mathematics. A questionnaire was composed incorporating 84 fixed-response items chosen from eight pre-established scales by Aiken, Fennema and Sherman, Gourgey and Schoenfeld. This paper focuses on the findings from the questionnaire survey. Students’ images of mathematics are compared with regard to gender, type of post-primary school attended and prior mathematical achievement.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1009-1027
Number of pages19
JournalInternational Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology
Volume47
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Oct 2016

Keywords

  • gender differences
  • Image of mathematics
  • post-primary students
  • prior achievement
  • school differences
  • second-level education
  • survey

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