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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to explore the accuracy of preceptions of junior high school students, teachers, and counselors concerning mathematical requirements of ten selected occupations (banker, airline pilot, engineer, physician, real estate agent, dentist, hotel manager, architect, school administrator, and lawyer) and to compare them to the perceptions of experts from these ten occupations.
Five of the ten occupations required a relatively high level of mathematics and five did not require a great deal of mathematics beyond basic mathematics. All ten occupations had been cited as prestigious and high paying in the 1980's.
Survey instruments, along with a permission slip and cover letter, were sent to students, teachers, counselors, and experts to ascertain their mathematical perceptions of occupation job requisites, occupational interest, and mathematical topics (from junior high through graduate level mathematics) used in the occupations.
One thousand and twenty subjects from a mid-western state were sent the instruments, which resulted in a response rate of 62.0 percent (35.0% males; 27.0% females). Nine hypotheses were tested using correlational analysis, two-way ANOVA, three-way ANOVA, and ten one-way ANOVAs.
The findings of the study were: (1) There was a significant correlation among the students' Mathematics Perception Rating Scale mean scores and their Occupational Interest Rating Scale mean scores. (2) There was a significant sex difference among the perceptions of students, teachers, and counselors on the Mathematics Perception Rating Scale. (3) There was a significant difference between eighth- and ninth-graders on the Occupational Interest Rating Scale. (4) There was a significant difference among the students, teachers, counselors, and experts on the Mathematics Perception Rating Scale. (5) When the frequency of use of the 40 mathematical topics by the experts was examined, it was found that junior and high school mathematics were most frequently used by the ten selected occupations. Beyond high school mathematics, only the expert engineers used 50 percent of the remaining topics. Ten percent of all the topics beyond basic college mathematics were sometimes or frequently used by most of the ten selected occupations.
