Girls' Junior Lyceum Form One students' attitudes towards mathematics lessons in the computer lab

Abstract

This study investigates the attitudes of a group of Form One Junior Lyceum Female Students towards: Mathematics, the Use of Computers and the Mathematics Lessons in the Computer Lab. The students were given an Attitude Questionnaire consisting of a set of 7 questions regarding Personal Information and of 30 Attitude Statements. The Attitude Questionnaire was made up of three Subscales: Subscale I - Attitudes towards Mathematics; Subscale 2 - Attitudes towards the Use of Computers; and Subscale 3 Attitudes towards the Mathematics Lessons in the Computer Lab. For each item in the Questionnaire, the students had to mark their preference. The Attitude Questionnaire was administered to 138 Form One Girls attending one of the six Junior Lyceums for girls. The Questionnaire was designed and administered only by the researcher. Tests for Reliability and Validity were also carried out. The correlation between (i) the attitude towards mathematics and the attitude towards the mathematics lessons in the compute lab and (ii) the attitude towards the use of computers and the attitude towards the mathematics lessons in the computer lab, were analysed. The study shows that the students have positive attitudes mathematics, the use of computers and the mathematics lessons in the computer lab. Both (i) Subscale I and Subscale 3 and (ii) Subscale 2 and Subscale 3 are positively correlated.