undergraduates' attitudes and the study of mathematics at the ...

with positive attitudes and concetration.
Another view by most male students was that male students knew maths better than females
They were of the view that it were male students who got higher grades in the subject than
females, that males had higher thinking abilities, that boys at school did better than girls in the
subject and that at the university there were many male maths lecturers. In this study, out of 8
maths lecturers at the University of Swaziland, there was only one female lecturer. However,
considering the few number of students taking the subject, a generalization of their views could
not be made as it required a relatively larger sample which could be compared to other samples
elsewhere.
Cooperation (in the study of maths) between male and female students was welcomed by most
female students (82% against 61%) in the three years of study. Many female students indicated
that most male students were patient with them,that they were ready to help when required to and
that they were more cooperative than fellow female studnts. Some male students who were
against the idea of studying with females said that female students were lazy, that they did not
contribute to discussions, that they were emotional and that they could not concetrate when
studying with females.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The data used in the analysis was small due to the small number of students who studied maths
from the considered sample and the findings could not be generalized and compared with some
other data from larger samples. However, the data gave some important information on gender
attitude clues and trends in the study of maths for comparison elsewhere. For example, unlike in
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