"A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDE TOWARDS MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL ABILITY OF HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS"

Attitude Toward Mathematics (ATM) is the student’s organized tendency to think, feel, perceive, and behave toward mathematics (Jovanovic and King 1998). ATM is a collective measure of “a liking or disliking of mathematics, a affinity to engage in or avoid mathematical activities, a idea that one is useful or useless” (Neale 1969). ATM Scale measures an individual’s feelings, interests, and predispositions toward mathematics (Askar 1986). The present study has been conducted to find the relationship between attitude towards mathematics and mathematical ability of the higher secondary school students in Puducherry region, India. It is sought to understand the relationship between attitude towards mathematics and mathematical ability, influence of gender and locality of school with respect to the attitude towards Mathematics. Out of a population of 12,294 students studying at the higher secondary school in the Puducherry region, a sample of 772 students was selected through the Stratified Random sampling technique. Eight Government and seven Private schools were selected based on the purposive sampling technique. The study revealed that the Mathematical ability of the students at higher secondary level depends on the attitude towards mathematics. Further attitude towards the mathematics of the girl students at the higher secondary level was more than that of their boys’ counterparts whereas no significant difference was found between rural and urban school students in the Puducherry region.