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The development of a geometry attitude scale.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This study presents the development of a Geometry Attitude Scale. 334 eight grade Turkish students were employed to conduct an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Factor structure obtained by EFA was evaluated by a confirmatory factor analysis in the different sample of 126 eight grade students. Findings suggested that the scale measures two constructs: motivation and self-confidence. These factors indicated .92 and .87 Cronbach alpha reliability estimate.

Introduction

As there is a general belief that children learn more effectively when they are interested in what they learn and that they will achieve better in mathematics if they like mathematics, attitudes have played an important role in academic researches in the field of mathematics education. A number of researchers have demonstrated that there is a significant correlation between attitude and achievement (Aiken, 1976; Davis, 2002; Haladyna, Shaughnessy, & Shaughnessy, 1983; Kulm, 1980; Ma, 1997; Nkwe, 1985; Schoenfeld, 1989; White, 2001). In contrast, a number of researchers have indicated that there is low or no correlation between attitude and achievement (Barssell, Petry & Brooks, 1980; Kiely, 1990; Quinn & Jadav, 1987). Limitation of these researches is that they were after a general attitude toward mathematics, used or developed instruments to gauge the attitudes toward mathematics. The observation of the students in the schools, however, shows us that they have low achievement in and attitudes towards some subjects in mathematics. Geometry is one of these subjects in mathematics that students have low achievement and attitudes. Therefore, determination of attitude toward geometry with an instrument is important.

Attitude is defined in different ways by diverse individuals (e.g. Aiken, 1976; McLeod, 1992; Thompson, 1993). Attitude may be seen as one's feelings toward a given circumstances and affect one's reaction to a particular situation. The previous researches reported mathematics attitudes composed of several dimensions. At least six broad dimensions may be identified in the literature as fundamental to people's attitudes toward mathematics, including anxiety, confidence, motivation, enjoyment, value--usefulness, and teacher-parent expectations (Goolsby, 1988; Ma, 1997; Mulhern & Rae, 1998; O'Neal, Ernest, McLean & Templeton, 1988; Tapia & Marsh, 2004, Watson, 1983). The earlier researches reported that the dimension of anxiety and confidence can be worked together. Tapia and Marsh (2004), for example, labeled anxiety and confidence as self-confidence. That is, it can be concluded that students with low self-confidence are nervous about learning geometry, find geometry difficult, feel that they are...

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