Attitudes and Prejudices about Mathematics: Looking for Answers from the Students’ Eyes

Abstract

The objective of this study is concretized in solving the fol- lowing question: what are the factors that enhance or inhibit the processes of teaching and learning mathematics? The re- search is categorized as quantitative and is aligned under the guidelines of multivariate analysis. The study population was conformed of fifth grade students from emblematic schools of Arequipa, determining a representative sample of 320 stu- dents. After obtaining informed consent, actions were devel- oped in order to collect information, where the application of an anonymous Likert-type questionnaire was the basis of the data collection; the indicators were related to beliefs and prej- udices about learning mathematics, the teacher factors, the student factors, the content factors and perception of math- ematics. The reliability of the instrument was measured with Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient, obtaining a value of 0.932. The data analysis included the use of the “Factors Analysis” tech- nique and its varimax version, it was shown that we obtained a 72.645 % variability of the data set, explained by the adopted research instrument. From the analysis, four factors emerged, which were named: 1) teacher profile, 2) student predisposi- tions, 3) overvaluation of mathematics and, 4) ignorance of the applicability of mathematics. There is a belief, politically correct and generic of the message “mathematics is difficult”; however, students need to know how mathematics is part of their dai- ly life and how mathematics should be an instrument at their service and not a purely curricular requirement. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that, in our population, the factors that inhibit the learning of mathematics are mainly related to the overvaluation of mathematics and the lack of knowledge of its applicability.