Factors Affecting Students’ Attitude toward Mathematics: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Shamila Dewi Davadas; Yoon Fah Lay

doi:10.12973/ejmste/80356

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Shamila Dewi Davadas ¹, Yoon Fah Lay ¹ ^*

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¹ Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, MALAYSIA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Students’ attitude towards mathematics is affected by factors such as parental influences, teacher affective support and classroom instruction. The purpose of this research was to examine the inter-relationships between these factors and effects on attitude towards mathematics using a partial least squares-structural equation modeling approach. A survey was carried out with a sample of 318 Form Four students from Sabah, Malaysia. The questionnaire consists of four scales: Perceived Parental Influences, Teacher Affective Support, Classroom Instruction and Attitude towards Mathematics. IBM SPSS 19.0 and Smart PLS 2.0 were used to analyze the measurement and structural models. The results showed that with the exclusion of some indicators from the scales, the measurement models showed acceptable reliability and validity. The structural model has moderate predictive relevance but the inter-relationships of the constructs in the structural model were significant. Teacher affective support and classroom instruction predict attitude towards mathematics more than parental influences.

Keywords

attitude towards mathematics
classroom instruction
perceived parental influences
teacher affective support
structural equation modeling
partial least squares

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 14, Issue 1, January 2018, 517-529

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80356

Publication date: 15 Nov 2017

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How to cite this article

APA

Davadas, S. D., & Lay, Y. F. (2018). Factors Affecting Students’ Attitude toward Mathematics: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(1), 517-529. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80356

Vancouver

Davadas SD, Lay YF. Factors Affecting Students’ Attitude toward Mathematics: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2018;14(1):517-29. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80356

AMA

Davadas SD, Lay YF. Factors Affecting Students’ Attitude toward Mathematics: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2018;14(1), 517-529. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80356

Chicago

Davadas, Shamila Dewi, and Yoon Fah Lay. "Factors Affecting Students’ Attitude toward Mathematics: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2018 14 no. 1 (2018): 517-529. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80356

Harvard

Davadas, S. D., and Lay, Y. F. (2018). Factors Affecting Students’ Attitude toward Mathematics: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(1), pp. 517-529. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80356

MLA

Davadas, Shamila Dewi et al. "Factors Affecting Students’ Attitude toward Mathematics: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 14, no. 1, 2018, pp. 517-529. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80356