The contribution of attitudes of students and teachers to junior high school students’ achievement in mathematics

This study investigated the extent to which Ghanaian junior high school students’ attitude towards mathematics and the attitude of their teachers contribute to students’ achievement in mathematics. In all, 400 junior high school students in their third year (i.e., the ninth grade), comprising 230 boys and 170 girls, randomly selected from twenty junior high schools in the Central Region of Ghana, participated in the study. The results of the study indicated that, in general, each of the two independent variables, students’ attitude towards mathematics and their teachers’ attitude towards mathematics, contributes significantly to junior high school student’s achievement in mathematics in Ghana. The study recommended, among other things, that both in-service and pre-service junior high school mathematics teachers should be made aware of the impact of their  attitudes on students’ achievement in mathematics. Keywords: students’ attitude, teachers’ attitude, mathematics achievement