Browsing by Author "Stenvall, Aino"

The purpose of this study was to find out students' views of themselves and others in the math class. Pupils' views were examined from the drawings they drew. The study also wanted to find out how girls and boys describe girls and boys in math class. The attitude of mathematics influences the success of the subject and in making future career choices. The attitude of mathematics can be viewed from the perspective of the individual or from the perspective of the atmosphere of the whole class. Previous research has shown that students’ attitudes toward math are declining during the school years. The subject of the study was the fourth, fifth and sixth graders of one primary school. Students who participated in the study drew drawings of a math lesson in their class. A total of 172 drawings were collected. The pupils' drawings were used to examine the affections marked on the drawn characters, i.e., the expressions and the texts of the thought and speech bubbles. The findings were collected in a spreadsheet program and the findings were quantified. The study revealed that among the students who participated in the study, fourth graders most often described their own attitude as positive. Older students were more likely to describe their attitudes as negative than fourth graders. In the fourth grade of the whole class, the atmosphere was mostly positive, in the fifth grade ambivalent, and in the sixth grade, the atmosphere was almost equally described as positive and ambivalent. Both girls and boys described boys more positively in math class. In addition, both girls and boys more often described same-sex students as negative in math lessons than the opposite sex.