IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/edt/jsserr/v6y2019i2p6-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Different Attitudes Towards Mathematics Among Economic And Business Students And Choice Of Business Course Major In Norway

Author

Listed:
  • Leiv OPSTAD

    (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to map out any differences regarding attitudes towards mathematics among students at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Approximately 200 students from three departments, Economics, Business School, and Industrial Economics and Technology Management, answered a survey about their attitudes towards mathematics. Through factor analysis, a measuring instrument for ‘attitude towards mathematics’ was constructed. The chosen methods were an independent samples t-test and binary logistic regression. This study sought to understand the impact of students’ attitudes towards mathematics and how that affects their choices within economics and business courses. Students at the Business School can choose different major courses in third year. There is a substantial difference in attitudes towards mathematics among those students. The findings suggest that students from Industrial Economics and Technology Management have the highest self-confidence in mathematics. Further, students with low self-confidence, value and enjoyment in mathematics tend to choose non-quantitative subjects such as marketing, organisation and management, while students with high scores prefer finance subjects. This research confirms that those students who valued mathematics and view it as useful, choose mathematic related studies. Furthermore, there is a link between students’ attitudes towards mathematics (enjoyment, value and self-confidence) and their choice in further studies. A student’s confidence and interest in a field of study is related to their chosen major. One motivation is earlier experience within the field. If a student achieves good grades and has success in mathematics, it creates a positive attitude towards this subject and will influence the choice of studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Leiv OPSTAD, 2019. "Different Attitudes Towards Mathematics Among Economic And Business Students And Choice Of Business Course Major In Norway," Social Sciences and Education Research Review, Department of Communication, Journalism and Education Sciences, University of Craiova, vol. 6(2), pages 6-30, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:edt:jsserr:v:6:y:2019:i:2:p:6-30
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sserr.ro/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/SSERR_2019_6_2_6_30.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Worthington & Helen Higgs, 2004. "Factors explaining the choice of an economics major: The role of student characteristics, personality and perceptions of the profession," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 31(5/6), pages 593-613, May.
    2. Andrew Worthington & Helen Higgs, 2003. "Factors explaining the choice of a finance major: the role of students' characteristics, personality and perceptions of the profession," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 261-281.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leiv Opstad, 2023. "The Relationship Between Norwegian Business Students’ Attitudes Towards Mathematics And Success In Business Education," International Journal of Teaching and Education, European Research Center, vol. 11(1), pages 47-60, December.
    2. Leiv Opstad & Torbjorn Arethun, 2020. "Skills, Gender, and Performance Matter when Undergraduate Business Students Choose Specialisation within Business Courses," International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, International School for Social and Business Studies, Celje, Slovenia, vol. 9(1), pages 95-107.
    3. Leiv Opstad, 2022. "Factors Explaining Business Students’ Success In Business Statistics: A Case From A Scandinavian Business School," Business Education and Accreditation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abedalqader Rababah, 2016. "Factors Influencing the Students’ Choice of Accounting as a Major: The Case of X University in United Arab Emirates," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(10), pages 25-32, October.
    2. Beverley Jackling & Claude Calero, 2006. "Influences on Undergraduate Students' Intentions to become Qualified Accountants: Evidence from Australia," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 419-438.
    3. Pruijssers, Jorien Louise & Singer, Gallia & Singer, Zvi & Tsang, Desmond, 2023. "Social influence pressures and the risk preferences of aspiring financial market professionals," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Balasingham Balachandran & Michael Skully & Kevin Tant & John Watson, 2006. "Australian evidence on student expectations and perceptions of introductory business finance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 46(5), pages 697-713, December.
    5. Arnold, Ivo J.M., 2020. "Gender and major choice within economics: Evidence from Europe," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    6. Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Rehman, Kashif-Ur- & Ahmad, Abrar & Safwan, Nadeem & Rehman, Ijaz-Ur, 2009. "Factors explaining the choice of finance major: students’ perception towards finance profession," MPRA Paper 40687, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    attitudes towards mathematics; quantitative analysis; business course major;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:edt:jsserr:v:6:y:2019:i:2:p:6-30. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dan Valeriu Voinea (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://cis01.central.ucv.ro/litere/cadr_juridic/departament_comunicare_jurnalism_stiinte_ale_educatiei/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.