How do student and classroom characteristics affect students’ attitude toward mathematics?

The current study investigates effects of the student and classroom characteristics on three components of attitude toward math (ATM): math self-confidence, usefulness and enjoyment of math. The sample consists of 4819 first-year secondary school students (grade 7, about 14-15 years old) from 78 classes of 49 schools in central Uganda. Data collection for the study was carried out through an attitude questionnaire administered at the beginning and at the end of school-year 2012. Three-level random intercept regression modeling was used to analyze the questionnaire responses. The results indicate that, for each of the three components, out of the total variance, between student, between class and between school differences ranged from 86% to 91%, 2.0% to 2.7%, and 3.5% to 9.1%, respectively. At the student level, prior math achievement and parental beliefs and attitudes were significant predictors of each of the three components. At the classroom level, classroom assessment was significantly associated with math self-confidence, teacher beliefs and attitudes with usefulness, and teaching style and teacher's behavior with enjoyment of math. Implications for the findings and directions of further research are discussed in the paper.status: publishe