• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.109-122
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• 2009

This study investigates the change in two theoretical constructs, attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics self-efficacy, among college students involved in a learning community model. The case of this study was a developmental mathematics class offered at a historically black college located in the southeastern United States. Subjects included 31 students enrolled in an introductory mathematics course, some of whom participated in a learning community (treatment group). The participants completed mathematics attitudes and mathematics efficacy instruments twice: at the beginning of the semester and again at the end. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a non-parametric statistic. The results showed that students' attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics self-efficacy are strongly correlated; the mathematical problem-solving efficacy changed significantly over time and it is significantly higher in the treatment group than in the control group; and the treatment group produced better outcomes. These findings indicate that a learning community model can increase students' mathematics self-efficacy beliefs. It is recommended that mathematics self-efficacy and attitudes toward mathematics be measured over an extended period of time when a learning community is implemented.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.65-84
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• 2011

The purpose of this research is to draw some implications for reducing gender differences in educational achievement of mathematics by inquiring those in mathematics-related attitudes. For this purpose, this article analyzed the gender difference in mathematics-related attitudes of the elementary, middle, and high school students. Also, mathematics-related attitudes according to achievement levels was analyzed. The findings of this study are as follows. Firstly, in the scores on mathematics-related attitudes, male students were significantly higher than those of female students. Secondly, in the evaluation of the subordinate factors of mathematics-related attitudes, gender differences were shown a little bit larger in the areas of interest and self confidence than in the area of perception of mathematics value regardless of grades. Thirdly, in all schools, the higher achievement level is, the higher the score of mathematics-related attitudes is. Lastly, gender differences on mathematics-related attitudes in advanced level group is bigger than those in other level groups.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.195-206
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of teacher on fourth-grade students' attitudes toward mathematics using data from TIMSS 2011. Students' attitudes toward mathematics included interest in learning mathematics, interest in mathematics lessons, and confidence in their mathematics ability. Teacher factors included mathematics professional development, confidence in teaching mathematics, teacher-centered mathematics instruction, and enhancing student mathematical thinking. The two level Hierarchical Linear Model was employed to analyze the relationship between teacher factors and student attitudes. Results showed that teacher-centered mathematics instruction significantly and positively predicted students' confidence about their mathematics ability. The findings suggest that school systems and mathematics educators need to provide teachers with the curriculum, assessment, and research-based practices and knowledge to overcome the obstacles to change their mathematics classroom.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Mathematical Education Conference
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.21-28
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• 2010

It is common that whoever is having a very low achievement level in mathematics has a poor attitude toward mathematics. However, it is totally opposite when we look at the case of Korean students. On several studies on international comparisons in mathematics and science achievement, Korean students recorded a top ranks among the nations. However, their attitudes toward mathematics are very poor; almost at the bottom in international assessment among other countries compared to international peers. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between students' attitudes toward mathematics and teaching methods and to analyze findings of research articles published within the last 15 years. These findings will contribute not only to understanding a relationship between students' attitudes toward mathematics and teaching methods, but to provide guidelines for how students' attitudes toward mathematics can be improved.

• School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.775-793
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• 2017

In this study, instruments were developed to measure of mathematics attitudes by conceptualization of epistemological beliefs as a cognitive dimension, mindfulness as a conative dimension, affect as an affective dimension. Perry's epistemological development scheme and Langer's mindfulness theory was noticed as a theoretical approach. Exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses, and a reliability test were assessed. This article suggest a new framework for analysing attitudes toward mathematics and changes in attitudes toward mathematics.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.463-488
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was providing implications in teaching and learning activities to vitalize mathematical communication and to raise positive attitudes about mathematics. We analyzed mathematical communication, disposition and attitudes of the students who had lower mathematical achievement rather than that of Korean language in class using reading materials and strategies. We found that teaching-learning activities using the reading materials and strategies let the low achievers in mathematics communicate more about mathematical notions and problem-solving process actively. The activities triggered interests and attention of mathematics and self-study. In addition, the lessons with reading materials and strategies aroused confidence, will and responsibility to mathematics learning to the students. They made the learners notice mathematics' values and roles and gave the opportunity of reflection about students' learning processes. As a result, the teaching-learning using reading materials and strategies should be developed and accomplished actively in classroom to turn mathematical inclination and attitudes of the students who had had negative inclination and attitudes to mathematics into those of positive and to vitalize mathematical communication to the lower achievers in mathematics.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.121-142
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary teacher's beliefs and attitudes about mathematics and how those reflect their teaching practices. For this goal : (1) Designing questionnaire to measure elementary teachers' beliefs and attitudes about mathematics (2) Inquiring into character of elementary teacher's beliefs and attitudes about mathematics after analyzing questionnaire (3) Analyzing two teachers' mathematics teaching practices to understand how teacher's beliefs and attitudes affect mathematics teaching practices.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.35-61
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to examine changes in Korean middle school students' affective attitudes toward mathematics over the past 5 cycles of TIMSS. To this end, we first analyzed the changes in students' affective attitudes towards mathematics in five major countries, and then analyzed the changes in Korean students' affective attitudes toward mathematics by item. As a result of the study, there were positive changes in Korean students' interest, confidence, and value perception of mathematics during the recent 5 cycle of TIMSS. Korean male students' affective attitude toward mathematics is higher than that of female students, and the gender gap has been increasing recently. There was a large difference in the affective attitudes toward mathematics among Korean students, depending on their achievement level, and in particular, the affective attitudes toward mathematics of students at the lower achievement level remained significantly low. Item-level analysis revealed a decrease in Korean students' awareness of the necessity of mathematics in daily life. Based on these results, we discussed the implications for cultivating Korean students' affective attitudes. It is hoped that the results of this study will be meaningfully used as basic data for examining the performance of mathematics education in Korea and contribute to developing measures to foster students' positive attitudes toward mathematics.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.115-129
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• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate the attitudes towards mathematics of high school students by comparing students of a general public school and a foreign language high school. The researchers were interested in how the two groups, middle or middle lower achievers and high achievers, showed their attitudes toward mathematics and where their attitudes were derived from. For the investigation, the researchers surveyed 121 students of general public high school and 64 students of a foreign language high school. Reliability, mean difference with t-test and frequency were analyzed. The results showed that many students from both groups had negative attitudes toward mathematics. However, the causes of the attitudes were different between the two groups. This implies that we need to reform the instructional methods and curricula of mathematics cources.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.49-65
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• 2006

This attitudes scale for prediction of mathematics achievement by elementary school students was developed from 50 initial items from the literature rated for content validity by 30 experts. The ratings rendered 31 revised items used for exploratory factor analysis and reliability tests. The 31 items were administered to 183 elementary students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, yielding 4 factors : enjoyment, confidence, value, and motivation with high inter-items consistency. To confirm appropriateness of the constructed model and to test its predictability in mathematics achievements, confirmative factor analysis and discriminant analysis were performed on 693 cases. Results showed that the attitude scale model of 4 factors can be recommended for use in the measurement of elementary school students' attitudes toward mathematics.