Faculty of Education - Theses

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Subject: Attitudes × Subject: Mathematics × Subject: Study and teaching ×

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    The march of the calculator into Malaysian classrooms?
    Lau, Yuet Kiew ( 1995)
    Calculators are used extensively in the workplace and are part of the technological change that is taking place in Malaysian society. However they are not used widely in the classrooms. About 200 primary, secondary and college teachers in Malaysia were surveyed about their attitudes toward the student use of calculators in the classroom and their current teaching practices. As many as 98% of the primary teachers and 83% of the lower secondary teachers have never used calculators in their mathematics lessons. The upper secondary teachers were using calculators in their classrooms because the present Malaysian national mathematics curriculum encourages and allows the use of calculators only at these levels. Most Malaysian teachers held more conservative views on calculator use than the teachers surveyed in Victoria, Australia in 1980. They felt that calculators should only be used after students have mastered basic number facts, acquired paper and pencil skills and understood the meaning of the four operations. About 29% of the teachers surveyed supported the introduction of calculators into primary classes. Although teachers believed that calculator use would enhance mathematics learning, many would not allow calculators to be used in class if they were not allowed on tests or examinations. Teachers also believed that parents would be against calculator use in the classrooms if they were not allowed on tests and examinations. It is recommended that the Malaysian Ministry of Education must allow calculator use on tests and examinations in order to encourage their use in primary and lower secondary classrooms.
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    Students' attitudes concerning mathematics: a study of the opinions and views concerning mathematics and mathematics teaching held by students in the upper primary and lower secondary schools of New South Wales and Victoria
    Keeves, J. P. ( 1966)
    From an examination of the relevant courses of study in mathematics and the associated published writings hypotheses were proposed to examine the influence of an emphasis on an inquiry and discovery approach to the teaching of mathematics on the attitudes concerning mathematics of students in the upper primary and lower secondary schools of New South Wales and Victoria (each N = 1000). Emphasis on the use of inquiry methods at the lower secondary school level was found to be associated with students' views that mathematics teaching involved more inquiry and discovery, with students' opinions that mathematics was an open and creative process and with the students' greater interest in mathematics. At the upper primary school level a strong influence of curricular factors was not detected, however, the evidence suggested that the classroom teacher played an important part in the development of attitudes concerning mathematics. The data collected was examined for the influence of several non-curricular factors including the sex of the pupil, and the occupation and the place of residence of the students' father. The sex of the student and differences in the scientific nature and the socio-economic status of the father's occupation were found to be linked with some differences in the opinions expressed by the students concerning mathematics.