Public and private junior high school students’ attitude and perceived parental influence on their mathematics learning

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate Private and Public Junior High School (JHS) students‘ perceptions of parent‘s influence on their mathematics learning and their attitude towards mathematics. One hundred and fifty participants from four Junior High Schools of which two are private and two are public schools in the Ga South Municipal were the participant for the study. Perceived Parents Influence (PPI) and Mathematics Attitudes Questionnaire (MAQ) were the data collection tools. The (PPI) was to identify the perception of their parents influence on their mathematics learning. Four subscales: Monitoring, Motivation, Communication and Material Support were identified for the PPI. Also, four subscales: Anxiety, Confidence, Enjoyment, and Benefit/Value were identified as for MAQ. Data collected were analysed using Means and Standard Deviations. The t-test was used to investigate whether there was a significant difference between private and public JHS students‘ perception of their parents influence and their attitude towards mathematics. The results indicated that there was statistically significant difference between the perception of their parents influence of private and public JHS students‘ parent‘s influence. Also, the results on students‘ attitude towards mathematics indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the attitude of private and public JHS students in the favour of this the finding of the study shows that parental influence may affect students in the private and public JHS attitude in learning mathematics. A recommendation was made for Parents Teachers Associations in schools to encourage parents influence on their children‘s mathematics learning.