“I’M BAD AT MATH AND I HAVE NEVER ENJOYED IT”: INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY STUDENTS’ INTEGRATED MATH ATTITUDES

Students develop positive or negative math attitudes at a young age and retain those attitudes through higher education and into their careers (Geist, 2015). College students with negative math attitudes may be more likely than students with positive attitudes to avoid courses and majors with math, like geoscience (Levy et al., 2021). When students with negative math attitudes take courses with math, like introductory geoscience, they have less success on math problems than students with positive attitudes (Barroso et al., 2021). Women tend to have higher levels of negative math attitudes than do men, possibly due to stereotype threat (Luttenberger et al, 2018; Spencer et al., 1999). There has been limited research on students’ math attitudes in geoscience and how those attitudes affect students’ success in geoscience.

We conducted a qualitative study at two universities to explore two questions: What are the math attitudes held by students taking university-level introductory geoscience classes? How do students' math attitudes vary for women and men? We collected and analyzed written narratives from 77 students. In the narratives, students described their thoughts and feelings about math. We identified three integrated math attitudes (IMAs) held by students in introductory geoscience classes. The IMAs were defined by students’ feelings, thoughts, and physiological reactions. Students holding Thriving IMAs had positive evaluations of their math skills and enjoyed math. They described no physiological reactions to math. Students holding Agonizing IMAs had negative thoughts and feelings about math and had negative physiological reactions to math. Students holding Persisting IMAs had positive and negative thoughts and feelings; however, they thought, ultimately, they could persist when doing math. A lower percentage of women than men held Thriving IMAs and a higher percentage of women than men held Agonizing IMAs. About the same percentage of women and men held Persisting IMAs. Students with an Agonizing IMA may be less successful in math activities in geoscience classes and may be less likely to pursue a geoscience major. Women may be particularly impacted because a high percentage of them held Agonizing IMAs. Geoscience instructors should consider implementing lessons to improve students’ math attitudes.