Students’ view of mathematics in general high school and vocational high school

Abstract

Abstract Much of the current debate among researchers revolves around the differences on the view of mathematics in secondary schools. The present research is concerned with the issue of whether or not students’ view of mathematics in secondary schools in terms of the type of schools’ factors are different between general high schools (Sekolah Menengah Atas referred to as SMA) and vocational high schools (Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan referred to as SMK) or not in the Riau province - Indonesia. This research involved a total of 276 secondary school students, 131 students from SMA and 145 students from SMK. A survey design was employed to investigate the students’ view of mathematics among secondary school students using the questionnaire. The quantitative data was statistically analyzed using MANOVA. Findings of this study indicated that a one-way MANOVA analysis revealed a significant multivariate main effect for SMK and SMA. It was concluded that SMK had a more positive view than SMA. SMK had a higher effort, mastery of goal orientation and self-confidence. These findings imply that teacher should consider students’ view of mathematics to present the most suitable learning strategy which can be imposed for students in order to boost their mathematics achievement