An Investigation Of Engineering Students' Attitudes Toward Calculus In Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to investigate engineering students in Taiwan to (1) assess their attitudes toward calculus, (2) determine the difference in attitudes scores between males and females and (3) assess the relationship between students, attitudes toward calculus and their calculus achievement. Attitude was measured in cognitive, affective, and behavior domains explore the relation between attitude and its internal factors of calculus learning among engineering students in Taiwan. This study used theory and related research to develop a questionnaire research tool. The internal factors of calculus learning that we choose were usefulness, self-efficacy, motivation, anxiety, and, learning habits. The contributions of this study are as followsゑThe findings show that a high percentage of students do not have positive attitudes toward calculus. A statistical significant difference existed in the mean scores for males and females in the calculus attitudes scale. Specifically, statistical significant differences were detected between males and females in two attitude domains: cognitive and behavior. The correlation between students’ attitudes toward calculus and calculus achievement was statistically significant in the self-efficacy scale. This study reveals that engineering students in Taiwan have different levels of attitudes toward calculus. This information could be helpful to calculus lecturers.