The relationship between attitude towards and achievement in mathematics among higher secondary students

This study is based on a survey of Higher Secondary school students about their attitudes towards mathematics and its possible effect on achievement in the subject. Students of different streams (Science, Arts and Commerce) constituted the population of this study. The sample consisted of 784 students both male and female of Class XI selected from school in southern district of West Bengal. The tool used was the Modified Fennema Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scale (Depaken, Lawsky and Padwa, 1993). Achievement of Mathematics was measured by the scores in mathematics in the Class X Public Examination. A co-relational study showed that the association between Higher Secondary students’ attitude towards mathematics and their achievement in mathematics is high. This indicates that a healthy attitude towards mathematics can augur good performance in mathematics examination. This was found to be particularly true for girls and for students in the Arts stream.