• School Mathematics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.697-716
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• 2011

It is known that Korean students performs very well in mathematics but show poor attitude toward mathematics. However, attitude itself is an important goal of education and it also promotes students learning. Therefore, it is important and urgent for us to find a way to improve students' attitude toward mathematics. In this article, we tried to examine characteristics of Korean students' attitude toward mathematics and identify student and school level factors affecting it. For this purpose, we analysed National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA) data in 2007 when NAEA was conducted especially focused on mathematics. Main findings of this research are as follows. First, we found that attitude toward mathematics got lower as students advanced to higher grades. And among 3 sub-domains of attitude toward mathematics, interest and self-confidence were lower than perception of value of mathematics. Secondly, attitude toward mathematics was mainly affected by student background variables such as gender, achievement, participation in private tutoring, father's education level. And while school factors contributed relatively little to students' attitude toward mathematics, teacher's perception on value of school education was positively related with students' attitude in high schools and emphasis on assessment was negatively related with students' attitude in elementary schools.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.249-262
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• 2010

Large Midwest university faculty members proposed the Science and Technology Enhancement Program Project (STEP) to improve students' learning in the secondary mathematics classroom using modules of inquiry-based teaching. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the STEP Project on students' attitude toward mathematics. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) were used to evaluate the impact of the STEP Project. The sample group for the study was 130 ninth grade students enrolled in Integrated Algebra I in a large urban school district. The school was one of eight secondary schools that participated in the STEP Project. The classes in the treatment group were three of five classes ordered in terms of the highest, middle, and lowest mean GPA. The control group consisted of two other middle GPA classes. The classes had an average of 25 students. Teachers who previously had been involved in the STEP Project taught all treatment and control classes. The inquiry-based teaching activities provided by the project were confined to the treatment classes. The survey measuring students' attitudes toward mathematics were obtained for both groups of students. The inquiry-based teaching affected students' attitudes toward mathematics (p < 0.07, ES = 3.07). Especially, students who had preexisting low attitudes toward mathematics were significantly affected by treatment (p < 0.02, ES = 0.02), while the treatment positively affected African American students overall at p < 0.08 (ES = 0.58).

• 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.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.383-403
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine how students' perception of their mathematics teachers' instructional practices is associated with students' attitude toward mathematics, taking into account their self-efficacy in mathematics. The sample contained 4669 Korean fourth graders who participated in Trends in International Mathematics Science Study 2015. We used exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to explore the factor structure of three latent variables and conducted structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized model. The results revealed that when students positively perceived their teachers' instructional practices, they tended to have a positive attitude toward mathematics. We also found that students' self-efficacy beliefs in mathematics positively mediated the relationship between perceived teachers' instructional practices and personal attitude toward mathematics. We discuss the practical and methodological implications of these findings and offer directions for future studies.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.329-356
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• 2016

The purpose of the study was to develop project based math learning using future prospective jobs to find out its effects on elementary school student's attitude toward mathematics and career awareness. Also, this study aims at implementation of this project based math learning program in school math education. The project based math learning using future prospective jobs was conducted through 19 lessons for 7 weeks. As a result, the project based math learning using prospective jobs is turned out to be effective on developing attitudes on mathematics and career awareness positively.

• 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.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.403-430
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• 2011

The purpose of the study was to investigate how the use of graphing calculators influence on forming students' mathematical concept of algebra, students' mathematical connection, and attitude toward mathematics. First, graphing calculators give instant feedback to students as they make students compare their written answers with the results, which helps students learn equations and linear inequalities for themselves. In respect of quadratic inequalities they help students to correct wrong concepts and understand fundamental concepts, and with regard to functions students can draw graphs more easily using graphing calculators, which means that the difficulty of drawing graphs can not be hindrance to student's learning functions. Moreover students could understand functions intuitively by using graphing calculators and explored math problems volunteerly. As a result, students were able to perceive faster the concepts of functions that they considered difficult and remain the concepts in their mind for a long time. Second, most of students could not think of connection among equations, equalities and functions. However, they could understand the connection among equations, equalities and functions more easily. Additionally students could focus on changing the real life into the algebraic expression by modeling without the fear of calculating, which made students relieve the burden of calculating and realize the usefulness of mathematics through the experience of solving the real-life problems. Third, we identified the change of six students' attitude through preliminary and an ex post facto attitude test. Five of six students came to have positive attitude toward mathematics, but only one student came to have negative attitude. However, all of the students showed positive attitude toward using graphing calculators in math class. That's because they could have more interest in mathematics by the strengthened and visualization of graphing calculators which helped them understand difficult algebraic concepts, which gave them a sense of achievement. Also, students could relieve the burden of calculating and have confidence. In a conclusion, using graphing calculators in algebra and function class has many advantages : formulating mathematics concepts, mathematical connection, and enhancing positive attitude toward mathematics. Therefore we need more research of the effect of using calculators, practical classroom materials, instruction models and assessment tools for graphing calculators. Lastly We need to make the classroom environment more adequate for using graphing calculators in math classes.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.183-195
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• 2020

In this study, the objective of this study is to verify the effects between lecturer's capability, education program, education service, and physical educational environment factors, and university students' interest in and attitude toward mathematics. A survey was conducted on 228 male and female students in science and engineering majors attending universities in the Pusan metropolitan area, and empirical analysis was conducted using the SPSS 26.0 program. The research results are as follows. First, among the characteristics of college mathematics maker classes, instructor competency (β=.349, t=6.380, p<.001), educational program (β=.361, t=5.650, p<.001), and physical educational environment (β=.196, t=3.281, p<.01) had a significant positive (+) effect on college students' interest in mathematics. Second, the factors of interest (β=.349, t=6.380, p<.001) in college mathematics maker classes were found to have a significant positive (+) effect on college students' attitudes toward mathematics. Third, among the characteristics of college mathematics maker classes, instructor competency (β=.340, t=6.365, p<.001), educational program (β=.352, t=5.559, p<.001), physical educational environment (β=.226, t=3.537, p<.01) was found to have a significant positive (+) effect on college students' attitudes toward mathematics. Through the results of this study, it was concluded that when the level of education program and teaching ability of the university mathematics maker class are high and the physical educational environment is excellent, it can have a positive effect not only on the university student's attitude towards mathematics but ultimately on the attitude of mathematics.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2022

The goal of this study was to analyze students' views about statistical themes in Mongolian secondary schools in Ulaanbaatar. To this end, 129 9th grade students were stratified random sampling at two secondary schools in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and a survey was conducted on them. The attitude survey focused on six factors contributing to the attitude: affective, cognitive competency, value, difficulty, interest, and student effort. The results show that students believed their statistical knowledge and skills have increased compared to the beginning of the courses. Furthermore, the survey revealed that they perceived statistics as neither an easy nor a difficult subject. Students' interest in statistics was neutral in general. These results suggest a need to develop effective and innovative statistical teaching and learning methods that can attract attention to statistical topics.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.441-463
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• 2010

This study purposes to examine the learning achievements, attitude and reactions of elementary school students in fifth grade in mathematics after inducing to use of learning-notebook on mathematics. To achieve the purpose, this study focuses on the following matters. First, we develop the ways to write thoughts and activities in solving problems on learning-notebook for elementary school student in fifth grade. Second, we analyze the effects of the students' learning achievements after applying the ways to them in every mathematics learning activities at home and in school, etc. Third, this study examine the attitudes and reactions of the students toward mathematics after observing the learning activities and interviewing them. The results are summarized as follows. First, using learning-notebook helps to improve the performance of students. The average point of the final examination went up to 90.67 while the average of the first level test was 70.75. And almost each student's result have improved. Second, the interviews with the students show that they feel sense of accomplishment, their mathematical attitude has changed to be positive, and they've actively participated in class by using the learning-notebook. The students felt confidence and achievement and they were more interested in studying mathematics when they use the learning-notebook. Further, the students used the notes in doing their homework and at home studying. Finally, the learning-notebook had a good influence on the relationships between students and teachers. Moreover, learning-notebook serves as a medium that connects teacher and student's work.