Factors Influencing Students’ Decision to Select Mathematics in Further Study

Abstract

This study has been carried out to find the “factors that influence students’ decision selecting mathematics in higher study”. Particularly, this study aims to find out the factors that impact students’ decision. It also seeks to give suggestions to curriculum makers and the mathematics education. The previous research, which have already done that dealt with issues regarding high schools’ mathematics and they are limited to narrow topics. In fact, those researches have been unable to study a bit broader one and nobody has ever tried to find the factors influencing students’ decision choosing mathematics in higher study, Especially in Nepal. So, I found this gap between the researches which have been already conducted. To fill the gap, I conducted this study. I used qualitative research and did one-on-one interviews with the students and teachers to collect responses from five secondary schools including three public and two private in Kaski district. I targeted ten students and two teachers to get responses from. The study shows that there are eight main factors that influence students’ decision, among them the “students’ performance” stands as the main factor. This study is able to find some interesting facts that would have many benefits for students, teachers, parents, curriculum makers and education policy makers as well. Through the interviews with participants, the researcher came to know that the popularity of mathematics in higher study is decreasing day by day. Even students who are choosing to study mathematics in secondary school, they are less likely to select mathematics in higher study.