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Dominican students’ intentions to pursue a mathematics-related career : an exploratory study of gender and affective issues

University of British Columbia

The main goal of the present study was to investigate, using survey data and at the Grade 12 level in the Dominican Republic, the relationships between four affective variables known to be highly correlated to students' participation in mathematics as well as three students' characteristics -gender, school type (socio-economic condition), and intentions to pursue a mathematics-related career. The rational behind this study comes from the author's teaching experience, from observing that many students are afraid of mathematics and consequently choose careers which do not require much mathematics. However, what is of most concern to the author is that so few female students choose to elect careers in which they must take more than one or two mathematics courses. MANOVA with follow-up ANOVAs were used to investigate differences by gender, school type, and career choice in the four affective variables related to mathematics used in this study-Perceived Confidence in Learning Mathematics, Attitude toward Success in Mathematics, Perception of Mathematics as a Male Domain, and Perceived Usefulness of Mathematics. Post-hoc comparisons were made using Duncan and Scheffe approaches to uncover which means were different. In addition, differences in intended participation by gender and by school type in choosing mathematics related-careers were studied using the chi-square test of association. The sample included 808 students in Grade 12 distributed over 25 schools. Four types of schools located in the second largest city of the country and in seven rural areas in the same province were sampled, Public Urban (PuU), Public Rural (PuR), Private Elite (PrE), and Private Non-elite (PrNE). The instrument consisted of 48 Likert-type items which were a subset of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (Fennema & Sherman, 1976) and was translated into Spanish. The questionnaire also included five background questions, including the choice for the intention to pursue "high," "middle," and "low" mathematicsrelated careers. Students' answers to these closed-format questions were analyzed to investigate gender and school differences in terms of career choice. Conclusions of this study include the following. First, Grade 12 Dominican females did not intend to pursue a high mathematics-related career as often as did males, while middle and low mathematics-related careers attracted more females than males. Further, the greatest number of students intending to pursue high mathematics-related careers were from the public schools. Second, Perceived Confidence in Learning Mathematics, Attitude toward Success in Mathematics, and Perceived Usefulness of Mathematics were the most important variables differentiating between students intending/nonintending to pursue a mathematics-related career. On the other hand, Perceived Confidence in Learning Mathematics, Attitude toward Success in Mathematics, and Perception of Mathematics as a Male Domain were the most important variables differentiating between males and females, and among types of schools. Third, PrNE schools and PuU schools had similar mean scores in the four affective variables. Finally, the results of this study suggest that other instruments could be adapted for use not only in the Dominican Republic but in any Spanish-speaking country by following the procedures outlined in this study.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-01-26

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3893

Curriculum Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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