Assessing factors hindering attitude of students towards mathematics on some selected high school and preparatory school the case of illu abba bor zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Education is one of the most powerful weapons that have no alternative to attack poverty, step up global development and identify the bad and good sides of the world. The development of any country relies largely on education particularly, on quality of education. The purpose of this study was to Assessing factors hindering attitude of students towards mathematics .Specifically, it was intended to investigate the relationship between achievement and attitude of secondary and preparatory school students in mathematics, to identify the existence of significant difference in attitude towards mathematics between male and female secondary and preparatory school students and to differentiate the most challenging component(s) of attitude in the selected secondary and preparatory schools in I/A/Boor. The research was designed in a descriptive survey method. Participants of the study were 341 grade 10 and 12 students of the selected schools and all mathematics teachers engaged in teaching the respective grades. Semi stratified, purposive and random sampling techniques were employed in order to select sample participants. Four instruments were used for data collection from sample students. Secondary data were used to assess achievements in mathematics. The findings of the assessment of secondary and preparatory school student s attitude towards mathematics in the selected schools indicated that at most of the sample students responses mean value greater than 3 for positively phrased statements and less than 3 for negatively phrased statements with respect to the three components of attitude. Data were also analyzed by using t-test for the assessment of attitude of male and female students. The results indicate that, there is no significant mean difference in attitude towards mathematics between male and female, as well as between secondary and preparatory school students. Moreover, it also implies that, the action (behavioral) component of attitude towards mathematics is relatively the most challenging area of secondary and preparatory school students in learning mathematics.