KHALIFA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH (KUSTAR) STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS MATHEMATICS IN THE LIGHT OF VARIABLES SUCH AS GENDER, NATIONALITY, MATHEMATICS SCORES AND THE COURSE THEY ARE ATTENDING

Abstract

This study was aimed at identifying the attitudes of the students of Khalifa University towards mathematics .The sample of this study consisted of 88(out of 216) students distributed evenly according to gender.  56.9% of the sample were Emiraties and 53.1% were expatriates. The Attitude Towards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) was implemented in collecting the data. The results of this study indicated that there were slight statistically significant differences between students’ attitudes towards mathematics and mathematics achievement scores, age, the course they are attending, students’ high school type, gender and their academic level. Additionally, the results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between self-confidence, enjoyment  and value with  and students’ nationalities. Expatriates students showed higher positive attitudes towards mathematics than the Emirati students. Also, the results showed that there was a slight statistical relationship between enjoyment and students’ academic level. Finally, this study revealed that 62.67% of the sample have self-confidence in dealing with mathematics, 84.4% felt that mathematics has a great value to them, and 75.49% showed enjoyment in dealing with mathematics.