ambrad tudtud chapter 2

Chapter 2
1. This chapter would talk about the importance of mathematics in the modern times, how it is defined and what is the unifying thought of this subject, why people find this subject very challenging and considerably difficult at times specially when it comes at “mathematical concepts” as the researchers would define it in the following pages of this chapter, and how can parents and teachers help in raising the positive reactions from students towards the subject. (very long, not parallel in construction)
2. r because of the social and psychological aspects that affects (check agreement)
3. According to the article Why Math is the hardest subject in school?, (author and year?)
4. These could be factors that results to (in) a negative feedback towards the subject
5. These negative attitudes then affects
6. That's why if we behave or act in a particular situation, other (weak beginning;rephrase)
7. Studies have shown that motivation and attitude have impacted student achievement. (Cote & Levine, 2000; Singh, Granville & Dika, 2002). (double period; only after the parenthesis)
8. some students have these negative conceptions about Mathematics that leads (check agreement)
9. to learn mathematics from them in the least possible difficulty they can encounter. (Else-Quest, N., Hyde, J., Linn, M., 2010). (period placement)
10. discussed by relating it to the previous lessons that they've learned. (Schorer, 2010) (same as no. 10)
11. Still according to Schorer (2010), another reason why these concepts are hard to understand is because of (omit because of) that
12. In connection to this follows the way of how the students (check)
13. Washburn (1994) interpreted the differences as to not a wide difference but narrow differences (express clearly)
14. Some would argue that it is based on cultural values, others would claim that it's from the natural intelligence and boldness of an individual, and others would claim that it is from social representation brought by the society on which they favor the most.(weak; dragging)
15. than that of the(omit than that of) females
16. To wrap it all up, (change, not formal)

Bibliography

Check proper APA format. Refer to orquillas/decena’s (mth 1-2:30) biblio
Most of the sources are from the internet. Others were able to find local research papers, but you did not.

A Descriptive Study of Gender Differences in Student Attitudes towards Mathematics
Review of Related Literature
Mathematics had been existing since time immemorial, even until now. Every academic student is required to take up a course in Mathematics. Due to the high importance of this subject as a basic knowledge to learn other sciences and courses, it has been always crucial to students in passing mathematics. This chapter would talk about the importance of mathematics in the modern times, how it is defined and what is the unifying thought of this subject, why people find this subject very challenging and considerably difficult at times specially when it comes at “mathematical concepts” as the researchers would define it in the following pages of this chapter, and how can parents and teachers help in raising the positive reactions from students towards the subject. This chapter would also include the psychological, scientific and even basic definition of attitude. Attitude is an important element in this study. It is the main determinant of how the students react towards mathematics whether they would elicit positive or negative response from the subject. And most importantly, in this chapter, the researchers would try to see if there are significant differences between the males and females in their attitude towards math. And if there is, what would be those differences and how would both sexes deal with it.
Mathematics, according to the Houghton Miffler Company (2000) is the study of the measurement, properties, and relationships of quantities and sets, using numbers and symbols. Mathematics is the academic subject that students must go through; whatever course they are taking up, whatever school they are in.
Because of its fundamental importance, Metzler of The Associate Press (2010) reported that the first lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama stated that Math and Science are important keys to the progress of the nation suggesting among the grade school and high school students that they must do good in Math and Science for the common good.
Math could arguably be one of those most difficult subjects that a student may encounter. Therefore, it is important to know and understand why many children and adolescents hate or fear Math. Is it because of the high standard logical requirement in nature of the subject, or because of the social and psychological aspects that affects the students’ performance?
According to the article Why Math is the hardest subject in school?, these could be the possible reasons for the lack of enthusiasm towards math: inability to comprehend the fundamentals, natural aptitude against Math, boring material or syllabus, uninspiring teaching methods and no interests of the parents. These could be factors that results to a negative feedback towards the subject.
As defined by a journal article of University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Student Academic Resource Center, attitude is “some state of mind about an object, fact or situation”. Since attitude shows what a person truly feels through behavior, other people recognize the state of mind of that person about something. Attitude is completely changeable even it is acquired, may it be a positive attitude or a negative attitude.
Still according to the definitions of UCF’s Student Academic Resource Center, humans tend to do what they tell themselves to do. These are manifested through behavior. Often times, people develop a negative attitude being the reason why they tend to feel anxious and just before trying new things or experiences. This suggests that attitude affects performance, including Math. These negative attitudes then affects learning and the ability to perform well, just like solving mathematical problems in school. And, with the presence of a negative attitude, negative outcomes such as low performance rates, are expected.
A simple definition of attitude towards Mathematics (Zan et. al., 2004) is either a positive or negative emotional and psychological disposition towards mathematics as an academic subject. The term attitude has many definitions if we are going to view it deeply. The American Heritage Dictionary (2005) simply defines it as a state of mind of a person. The Webster 9th New World Dictionary explains that it is a mental position related to a fact or state. Psychologist also believes that attitude is an expectancy, or an organization of concepts. Attitude could also be defined as beliefs, habits, and motives associated with a particular object (UCF Students' Academic Resource Center, 2005). In layman's terms, we can simply define attitude as a state of mind or feeling towards a state or a fact. Behaviors are the main agent in showing off our attitudes. That's why if we behave or act in a particular situation, other persons would be able to determine our state of mind on that particular thing in whichbehavior is manifested.

According to the UCF Student Academic Resource Center (2005), people once believed that attitudes are constants. This means that it is not capable of change and if a person had this particular type of attitude, it would stay on forever. But for sure, everyone had already known that this statement is not true anymore. If we have a negative prospect towards something, it would also at the same time cause a negative attitude that affect what we expect from ourselves. At the same time, this negative attitude also affects our actions, the thing that is evident to everyone around us because it is something that is concrete. This is what most psychologists agreed on, that we tend to do what we tell ourselves to do. Just like on how the students perform in mathematics, if they are thinking they cannot do it, then probably, it would lead them into trouble because a negative attitude weakens motivation and restricts performance.
Studies have shown that motivation and attitude have impacted student achievement. (Cote & Levine, 2000; Singh, Granville & Dika, 2002). As an example, Bottge (2001) figured out that if mathematical problems were interesting and engaging enough, students with low mathematical solving abilities answers emphasizing their higher level of competence. The conceptions, attitudes, and expectations of the students regarding mathematics and mathematics teaching have been considered to be very significant factor underlying their school experience and achievement (Borasi, 1990; Schoenfeld, 1985).
Over the years, some students have these negative conceptions about Mathematics that leads them into unyielding results. They tend to give up easily especially to those who haven't gained full trust in their abilities in facing the subject. Students want to have this kind of attitude in which they would seek convenience. They don't want to undergo very long and painful formulas in order to get the correct solution to the problem. They would assume that Mathematical problems should be solved in just a short amount of time or in the way that they are most suitable with. In short, they are just after the “correct” answer. For them, the role of the student is to receive mathematical knowledge and to be able to demonstrate so; the role of the teacher is to transmit this knowledge and to ascertain that students acquired it (Frank, 1988).
When an interview is conducted to students regarding on how easy or how difficult the subject is, for sure, nobody would even assure that he/she has not encountered a difficult time in participating in the subject. Why would the students say those words? Is Mathematics really difficult?
It would be natural for a human being, the students in particular, to experience fear in his/her lifetime. Engaging in Mathematical problems could be the cause of that fear. The feeling of being inferior or having this instantaneous fear in doing Mathematics hugely restrains the student's artistry and the reasoning ability like getting just conclusions not just in mathematics but in actual life situations as well. We can describe it as a kind of a barrier that forbids a person to push through and persuade in the subject. This sort of barrier could be traced from many directions. It could be from the expectations of family members who have a good history in mathematics. It makes the student expect more of himself in which in turn has a negative effect on the individual. One effect would be if the student would fail to come up with his/her expectations of himself and from his family, it would cause much pressure and a lower self-esteem due to the failure. It is not about learning the subject that matters the most but the way that how it is taught and the rate at which it is understood. There might also be a pressure in the part of the instructor or the teacher because the students are expecting to learn mathematics from them in the least possible difficulty they can encounter. (Else-Quest, N., Hyde, J., Linn, M., 2010).
We also have these “mathematical concepts” that students' also consider as a huge thorn on their sides. These concepts that we learn has different variations as we proceed from being an elementary student, to a high school student, and up to being a college undergraduate. What makes these mathematical concepts hard to understand might be from the very simple reason that they are defined differently or in terms of a new concept that the students are not familiar anymore. That would be the primary purpose on chopping down different topics in mathematics in different year levels, in order for the student to relate from the new concepts discussed by relating it to the previous lessons that they've learned. (Schorer, 2010)
Still according to Schorer (2010), another reason why these concepts are hard to understand is because of that it is expressed in an exaggerated way that it is really necessary to learn everything about the subject because the students are expected to do so. And after having this kind of manners, the students would suddenly doubt themselves if they could really instill those math concepts that they have learned previously. In connection to this follows the way of how the students would value the subject in order to learn more. That is why the study includes the attitude of the student because it is not just simply the environment, the materials or the way the lessons are taught that could affect how a student performs in mathematics. Attitude might also be a good way of viewing the roots of all these fear and anxious feelings of teenagers and maybe after conducting this study, we could deal with these problems and find some solutions by getting sufficient and accurate answers towards the students' performance, may it be male or female.
Do differences truly exist between males and females?
The journal article of Washburn (1994), the Reflections on a Psychoanalytic Theory of Gender Differences, adapted from the works of Choodrow (1979), Dinnerstein (1976) and Johnson (1988) suggesting that there are some instances that gender asymmetries during the childhood development lead to gender differences to the later life.
Washburn (1994) interpreted the differences as to not a wide difference but narrow differences to the degree of difference between the two genders.
This study of the researchers would intend to find out if there is a significant difference between the student attitudes towards mathematics. This had remained an issue nowadays. Even published journals in Central American regions are still debatable and there are varying results when it comes to determining on the abilities and attitudes of the two sexes. Some would argue that it is based on cultural values, others would claim that it's from the natural intelligence and boldness of an individual, and others would claim that it is from social representation brought by the society on which they favor the most.
The gender stratification hypothesis maintains that such gender differences are closely related to cultural variations in opportunity structures for girls and women(Else-Quest, Hyde, and Linn, 2010). The gender stratification hypothesis proposes that in patriarchal cultures, male students link their achievement to future opportunities and outcomes. As a result of the decreased opportunities afforded to females, girls do not perceive such a link and thus do not achieve as boys do in domains that they perceive to be less useful. The results of this study showed that given with the hypothesis that both genders are equal, they were still able to come up with a conclusion that boys have a more positive attitude towards math based on the mean effect sizes in mathematics. This study by the team of Else-Quest has been conducted in 69 different nations in which the effect was really considerable. The results point to specific scopes of gender equity responsible for gender gaps in math. And this is opposite to other results of their previous study conducted which is about the gender stratification hypothesis in which the results are not that significant. Equal and just treatment in school, fair distribution of labor especially to those engaging in mathematics related researches and jobs, and the presence and public representation of women could be the factors that could lift up the gender gap between the males and females. Stereotypes that girls and women lack mathematical ability persist, despite mounting evidence of gender similarities in math achievement (Hedges & Nowell, 1995; Hyde, Fennema, & Lamon, 1990; Hyde, Lindberg, Linn, Ellis, & Williams, 2008). This disagreement is somehow doubtful because such negative stereotypes can impair math test performance and cause anxiety via stereotype threat (Blascovich, Spencer, Quinn, & Steele, 2001; Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999). The researchers believed that girls earn higher grades towards the end of high school despite the percentage of boys who are more successful in pursuing mathematics related courses. But a meta-analysis, a quantitative statistical analysis of several separate but similar experiments or studies in order to test the pooled data for statistical significance, conducted by Hyde, Fennema, and Lamon (1990) showed that the difference in math performance among the population showed a negligible female advantage against the males. More recent studies still conducted by the team of Hyde showed the same insignificant results between gender differences in earning the better grades. These findings are consistent with the gender similarities hypothesis, which maintains that males and females are similar on most, but not all, psychological variables (Hyde, 2005).
It was found that, developmentally, the gap widens during high school, when males report greater self-confidence. Gender differences in math anxiety and self-concept have received considerable research attention, with girls tending to report higher anxiety and lower self-concept about their math abilities. Gender differences towards anxiety in math had caught their attention, showing that females tend to have more anxiety levels and a lower self-confidence compared to males who are surer about their capabilities but the results vary by different published thesis gathered. (Else-Quest, Hyde, and Linn, 2010).
A research study by Kafui and Snetzler (1998) entitled A Meta-Analysis of Gender Differences in Students' Attitudes towards Mathematics showed that females have dominantly negative attitude towards mathematics compared to males. This explains that females tend to have a negative impression towards mathematics and leads to discouragement to be more competitive in the subject matter. As an additional observation, Kafui and Snetzler described that males are more competitive than that of the females in doing mathematics.
Likewise, a study conducted by Shackoy and Thompson (2005), entitled “High School Students’ Attitudes towards Mathematics” concluded that male students are more interested in studying mathematics posing positive attitude compared to female students. Almost all of the male respondents have positive results when their answers are tallied compared to the females that only constitute of about 35% of positive reactions.

Another form of meta-analysis study conducted by Messmer (1993), the significant difference between the two sexes had decreased as the year passes by. Differences in attitude towards mathematics between boys and girls were evaluated in an empirical study carried out in (west)German secondary schools during 1989 on a group of 748 students aged 14–19. The main focus of the study was to ascertain whether the results from previous studies of the last decade, which reported significant differences between boys' and girls' attitudes to mathematics, were still valid.
This study shows there are still significant gender differences in many areas, such as: interest in mathematics, importance of high attainment in mathematics, willingness to consider entering a career involving mathematics and mathematical activities and themes from the real world which interest the pupils. Despite these still prevailing gender differences, the study nevertheless shows that girls' and boys' views on gender roles and corresponding areas of activities have changed considerably in recent years. The gap between the attitudes of the males and the females is not evident during their preschool or elementary years, although there are slight variations when they would step into their high school and college years. Moreover, they found out that when getting random samples from a particular school, it’s hard to determine whether there are indeed significant differences between the two. The large and more evident differences could be viewed from students who were able to undergo a fast development or maturity period in their lives, an exception to those who are born geniuses and those with high intellectual capacity.

Another meta-analysis study (Hyde, et.al.) conducted in Villanova Pennsylvania also estimated that for the students to be successful in the future, they have to do good in mathematics. The two genders had comparable mathematical skills. However, the males have more confidence than females, giving them more edge in pursuing mathematics.

To wrap it all up, the review of this study primarily concerns about the attitude and disposition towards the subject mathematics between males and females and the existing difference, if there is any, between them. How would this difference serve as a measurement of the higher positive attitude of males as what Else-Quest, Fennema and Lamon (1990) have claimed and how Washburn (1994) conceptualized the narrow differences between the two sexes in their high school years. This study that will be conducted by the researchers would aim to do and synthesize their statements regarding gender differences in a Filipino community because most of the studies gathered are from western countries. This study will hope to yield different results as compared to the reviewed studies mentioned in the context. It should also be put into consideration that the two sexes, the male and the female, are different from each other.