A Study of Secondary School Students’ Attitude towards Mathematics in Relation to their Achievement and Professional Choices

The study explores the attitude of secondary school students towards mathematics in relation to their achievement and professional choices. The descriptive survey research method was used for the study, the sample consisted of 120 students there 60 girls and 60 boys from A.M.U. Girls High School and S.T.S High School respectively. The sample was drawn by stratified random sampling. For the collection of data researcher used the Occupation Aspiration Scale developed by Haller and Miller (1967) and Mathematics Attitude Scale prepared by the investigator. The findings of the study revealed that: (i) there exist a favourable attitude of secondary school girls and boys towards mathematics. (ii) Students having high achievement scores have a positive attitude towards mathematics. (iii) Students having positive attitude towards mathematics go for mathematics related professions. (iv)There is no significant difference in the attitude of science and arts stream of secondary school girls and boys. (v) There is no significant difference in the attitude of male and female of secondary school students towards mathematics.