Attitude of Primary Education Studies Students towards Learning Mathematics in Niger State College of Education Minna

Abstract

The study was to investigate attitudes of primary education studies students towards learning mathematics in Niger state College of Education, Minna. Two research questions and hypothesis were employed to guide the study. The research design was descriptive survey. The target population consisted of 200 level students in undergraduate and Nigeria Certificate of Education in the department of Primary Education Studies (PES), with sample size of 60 students selected through simple random sampling. The instrument utilized for data collection was questionnaire titled Attitude towards Mathematics (ATMQ). The instrument was validated by three experts from
PES and Mathematics departments. To ensure reliability, a test-retest analysis using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used and yielded at r=0.7. Mean and bench mark were used to answer the research questions, while t-test analysis was used in testing the hypothesis. The findings revealed that the attitude of PES students was positive and can influence their academic performance. It was revealed that gender doesn’t influences their attitude in mathematics if they are equally treated and right believe about mathematics. It was recommended among others that students should be made aware that it is their attitudes toward mathematics learning that can leads them success in mathematics. Stakeholders should try to cultivate positive attitude on students by exposing them to relevance of mathematics.