Student"s Attitudes Towards Mathematics:Comparative Study about Iranian and German 10 Grades Students

Learning mathematics does not only involve thinking and reasoning, it is also dependent on the attitudes of learners towards learning and mathematics. A lot of research has been carried out on the history of mathematics education to find the factors that influence student achievement in the subject. Among these factors, student attitude towards mathematics has been largely studied. There has often been a correlation foun years, Iranian students have not been scored in the top band in mathematics international comparison tests while German students have been ranked at the upper side of the average mark. This study is in part aimed at explaining the reason why Iranian students appear to do so badly in these international tests and whether the The comparison was made throught a Likert-scale questionnaire which was based on the following components: mathematical utility, enjoyment of Mathematics, their fear of Mathematics and meta-cognition or the students' self-concept of mathematical knowledge. The attitudes towards mathematics of a group of grade 10 students in two selected schools in Germany and Iran were compared. The study came up with noteworthy findings which, if investigated further, may have implications for policy makers and Mathematics educators in both countries. The findings showed that German pupils learn about the utility of mathematics in their everyday life and this factor influenced their attitude towards learning mathematics.