Investigating Undergraduate Students' Attitudes Towards M.A. Course Context: Gender-Based Differences

Undergraduate students are often introduced to syllabi that differ significantly from those of postgraduate studies, potentially influencing their perceptions of M.A. programmes. Current paper tries to investigate undergraduate students' attitudes towards M.A. course context. It aims to identify how both male and female students perceive M.A. course context. It puts following research questions: (1) Are undergraduates’ attitudes towards M.A. course context positive or negative? (2) Does gender have a statistically significant effect on attitudes towards M.A. course context? To answer addressed questions, it is hypothesized that (1) there are negative attitudes concerning M.A. course context, (2) gender has no statistically significant effect on undergraduate students’ attitudes. In order to prove suggested hypotheses a questionnaire of 15 items was designed, covering three key factors namely: materials, cognitive, and psychological. Results which were analyzed using Weighted Arithmetic Mean (WAM) proved that males report positive attitudes and females show negative views about M.A. course context.