Attitude toward mathematics, mathematics anxiety, and mathematics achievement related to gender and academic program

Purpose. The main purpose of this study was to identify the differences in mathematics achievement and attitudes toward mathematics with regard to gender and academic program for Thai freshman students at the College of Education, Srinakarinwirot University, Mahasarakham, Thailand (1987-1988).;Procedures. The data for this study consisted of 152 freshman students. The instrument for this study consisted of the five attitudes toward mathematics subscales developed by Fennema and Sherman and the AMEQEP which was mathematics achievement test developed by the Committee of Assessment of Mathematics, Thai Ministry of Education.;Findings. Results indicated that for the overall group students' attitudes toward success in mathematics were high (mean = 43.72). Overall, students had high level of anxiety in learning mathematics (mean = 33.95).;A two-factor multivariate analysis of variance revealed that there were significant differences for the mathematics achievement and the five mathematics attitude subscales and the independent variable, gender (p =.001). The two-factor analysis of variance and the Least Significant Difference (LSD) showed that males had more confidence in learning mathematics than did females, that males perceived mathematics as a useful subject more than did females, and that males had lower anxiety in learning mathematics than did female counterparts.;There were no differences between Science students and Liberal Arts students in mathematics achievement and the five mathematics attitude subscales at.05 level.;Computation of estimated omega-square (;Conclusions. (1) For Thai freshmen college of education students, mathematics achievement for males and females will be similar. (2) Male students will show greater confidence in learning mathematics. They will possess lower anxiety in learning mathematics and perceive mathematics as a more useful subject than will females.