• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.365-382
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• 2019

This study aimed to analyze the moderated effects of mathematics test-preparation strategies in the relation between elementary school students' epistemological beliefs about mathematics and test anxiety. The moderated effects were tested by using structural equation modeling with the Ping's two-step approach. The subjects were 810 6th graders (411 male, 399 female) from 13 elementary schools situated in G Metropolitan City. Tests for epistemological beliefs about mathematics, test anxiety, and mathematics test-preparation strategies were used as measurement scales. The results of this study were as follows. The moderated effects of mathematics test-preparation strategies in the relation between epistemological beliefs about mathematics and test anxiety were statistically significant. Higher level of epistemological belief about mathematics were linked to lower level of test anxiety, while lower level of epistemological belief about mathematics led to an increased influence of test-preparation strategies levels on test anxiety. Students who had higher levels of epistemological belief about mathematics displayed lower level of test anxiety when using high levels of test-preparation strategies. Students who scored lower in the epistemological belief about mathematics had lower level of test anxiety when employing low levels of test-preparation strategies. Therefore, to lower the level of test anxiety among elementary students, the intervention program need to consider the appropriate levels of test-preparation strategies in accordance with each student's level of epistemological belief about mathematics.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.261-275
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• 2016

Many students have dualistic beliefs about mathematics and its learning- for example, there is always just one right answer in mathematics and their role in the classroom is receiving and absorbing knowledge from teacher and textbook. This article investigated some epistemic implications and limitations of common mathematics teaching practices, which often present mathematical facts(or procedures) and treat students' errors in a certain and absolute way. Langer and Piper's (1987) experiment and Oliveira et al.'s (2012) study suggested that presenting knowledge in conditional language which allows uncertainty can foster students' productive epistemological beliefs. Changing the focus and patterns of classroom communication about students' errors could help students to overcome their dualistic beliefs. This discussion will contribute to analyze the implicit epistemic messages conveyed by mathematics instructions and to investigate teaching strategies for stimulating students' epistemic development in mathematics.