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Abstract

This dissertation has considered how attitudes towards mathematics are formed and what can impact them. It has compared the attitudes between year two and year six children, their parents and their teachers. The sample size for this study equated to a total of 13 participants. There were three year two children, three year six children, three teachers of the children and four parents of the children in this study.
Developing an understanding of the issues that affect attitudes towards maths is very important as it could impact teaching pedagogy, maths coverage in the classroom, testing and could increase the number of young adults going on to choose further education and careers in maths.
The research has been conducted as an instrumental qualitative case study in an average sized city primary school. This was considered appropriate for this small scale study and linked to the chosen ontological and epistemological paradigms chosen by the researcher. A review of academic literature was completed to ascertain the historical, sociological, psychological and current context. Methods chosen to collect data aligned with the constructivist and interpretivist paradigm. A child centred approach to interviews and online questionnaires, gathered textual data from children, their parents and their teachers to aid triangulation and identify their lived experience of their mathematics education.
Thematic Template Analysis was applied to the data and the outcomes suggested that these participants enjoy maths, they see the value in maths education, know its worth for their future success and have clear understanding that confidence and ability in maths can grow over time. In general, the participants did not exhibit signs of anxiety or worry about the subject, however, historically the adults did. It maybe suggested that the reform in maths education and the introduction of maths mastery for all and growth mindset approaches, have contributed to a growing confidence amongst these participants. Further research would need to be carried out in order to substantiate these proposals.

Course: Education Studies - MA - P258PTC

Date Deposited: 2023-03-23

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14110.html