Beliefs: A Hidden Variable in Mathematics Education?

Beliefs: A Hidden Variable in Mathematics Education?
Author: G.C. Leder
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2005-12-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0306479583

This book focuses on aspects of mathematical beliefs, from a variety of different perspectives. Current knowledge of the field is synthesized and existing boundaries are extended. The volume is intended for researchers in the field, as well as for mathematics educators teaching the next generation of students.

Attitudes, Beliefs, Motivation and Identity in Mathematics Education

Attitudes, Beliefs, Motivation and Identity in Mathematics Education
Author: Markku S. Hannula
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3319328115

This book records the state of the art in research on mathematics-related affect. It discusses the concepts and theories of mathematics-related affect along the lines of three dimensions. The first dimension identifies three broad categories of affect: motivation, emotions, and beliefs. The book contains one chapter on motivation, including discussions on how emotions and beliefs relate to motivation. There are two chapters that focus on beliefs and a chapter on attitude which cross-cuts through all these categories. The second dimension covers a rapidly fluctuating state to a more stable trait. All chapters in the book focus on trait-type affect and the chapter on motivation discusses both these dimensions. The third dimension regards the three main levels of theorizing: physiological (embodied), psychological (individual) and social. All chapters reflect that mathematics-related affect has mainly been studied using psychological theories.

Mathematics, Affect and Learning

Mathematics, Affect and Learning
Author: Peter Grootenboer
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2015-10-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9812876790

This book examines the beliefs, attitudes, values and emotions of students in Years 5 to 8 (aged 10 to 14 years) about mathematics and mathematics education. Fundamentally, this book focuses on the development of affective views and responses towards mathematics and mathematics learning. Furthermore, it seems that students develop their more negative views of mathematics during the middle school years (Years 5 to 8), and so here we concentrate on students in this critical period. The book is based on a number of empirical studies, including an enquiry undertaken with 45 children in Years 5 and 6 in one school; a large-scale quantitative study undertaken with students from a range of schools across diverse communities in New Zealand; and two related small-scale studies with junior secondary students in Australia. This book brings substantial, empirically-based evidence to the widely held perception that many students have negative views of mathematics, and these affective responses develop during the middle years of school. The data for this book were collected with school students, and students who were actually engaged in learning mathematics in their crucial middle school years. The findings reported and discussed here are relevant for researchers and mathematics educators, policy makers and curriculum developers, and teachers and school principals engaged in the teaching of mathematics.

Views and Beliefs in Mathematics Education

Views and Beliefs in Mathematics Education
Author: Benjamin Rott
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2018-12-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3030012735

The book is made up of 21 chapters from 25 presentations at the 23rd MAVI conference in Essen, which featured Alan Schoenfeld as keynote speaker. Of major interest to MAVI participants is the relationship between teachers’ professed beliefs and classroom practice. The first section is dedicated to classroom practices and beliefs regarding those practices, taking a look at prospective or practicing teachers’ views of different practices such as decision-making, the roles of explanations, problem-solving, patterning, and the use of play. The focus of the second section in this book deals with teacher change, which is notoriously difficult, even when the teachers themselves are interested in changing their practice. The third section of this book centers on the undercurrents of teaching and learning mathematics, what rises in various situations, causing tensions and inconsistencies. The last section of this book takes a look at emerging themes in affect-related research. In this section, papers discuss attitudes towards assessment.

Mathematicians and Their Gods

Mathematicians and Their Gods
Author: Snezana Lawrence
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2015
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0198703058

This is a book on the relationship between mathematics and religious beliefs. This book shows that, throughout scientific history, mathematics has been used to make sense of the 'big' questions of life, and that religious beliefs sometimes drove mathematicians to do mathematics to help them make sense of the world

New Mathematics Education Research and Practice

New Mathematics Education Research and Practice
Author: Jürgen Maasz
Publisher: Sense Publishers
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2006
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9077874747

Mathematics education research has blossomed into many different areas which we can see in the programmes of the ICME conferences as well as in the various survey articles in the Handbooks. However, all of these lines of research are trying to grapple with a common problem, the complexity of the process of learning mathematics. Although our knowledge of the process is more extensive and deeper despite the fragmented nature of research in this area, there is still a need to overcome this fragmentation and to see learning as one process with different aspects. To overcome this fragmentation, this book identifies six themes: (1) mathematics, culture and society, (2) the structure of mathematics and its influence on the learning process, (3) mathematics learning as a cognitive process, (4) mathematics learning as a social process, (5) affective conditions of the mathematics learning process, (6) new technologies and mathematics learning. This book is addressed to all researchers in mathematic education. It gives an orientation and overview by addressing some carefully chosen questions on what is going on and what are the main results and questions what are important books or papers if further information is needed.

Proficiency and Beliefs in Learning and Teaching Mathematics

Proficiency and Beliefs in Learning and Teaching Mathematics
Author: Yeping Li
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2013-09-04
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9462092990

Efforts to improve mathematics education have led educators and researchers to not only study the nature of proficiency, beliefs, and practices in mathematics learn¬ing and teaching, but also identify and assess possible influences on students’ and teachers’ proficiencies, beliefs, and practices in learning and teaching mathematics. The complexity of these topics has fascinated researchers from various back¬grounds, including psychologists, cognitive or learning scientists, mathematicians, and mathematics educators. Among those researchers, two scholars with a similar background – Alan Schoenfeld in the United States and Günter Törner in Germany, are internationally recognized for their contributions to these topics. To celebrate their 65th birthdays in 2012, this book brought together many scholars to reflect on how their own work has built upon and continued Alan and Günter’s work in mathematics education. The book contains 17 chapters by 33 scholars from six different education systems. This collection describes recent research and provides new insights into these topics of interest to mathematics educators, researchers, and graduate students who wish to learn about the trajectory and direction of research on these issues.

Affect and Mathematical Problem Solving

Affect and Mathematical Problem Solving
Author: Douglas B. McLeod
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1461236142

Research on cognitive aspects of mathematical problem solving has made great progress in recent years, but the relationship of affective factors to problem-solving performance has been a neglected research area. The purpose of Affect and Mathematical Problem Solving: A New Perspective is to show how the theories and methods of cognitive science can be extended to include the role of affect in mathematical problem solving. The book presents Mandler's theory of emotion and explores its implications for the learning and teaching of mathematical problem solving. Also, leading researchers from mathematics, education, and psychology report how they have integrated affect into their own cognitive research. The studies focus on metacognitive processes, aesthetic influences on expert problem solvers, teacher decision-making, technology and teaching problem solving, and beliefs about mathematics. The results suggest how emotional factors like anxiety, frustration, joy, and satisfaction can help or hinder performance in problem solving.

Mathematics and Religion

Mathematics and Religion
Author: Javier Leach
Publisher: Templeton Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781599471495

Mathematics and Religion: Our Languages of Sign and Symbol is the sixth title published in the Templeton Science and Religion Series, in which scientists from a wide range of fields distill their experience and knowledge into brief tours of their respective specialties. In this volume, Javier Leach, a mathematician and Jesuit priest, leads a fascinating study of the historical development of mathematical language and its influence on the evolution of metaphysical and theological languages. Leach traces three historical moments of change in this evolution: the introduction of the deductive method in Greece, the use of mathematics as a language of science in modern times, and the formalization of mathematical languages in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As he unfolds this fascinating history, Leach notes the striking differences and interrelations between the two languages of science and religion. Until now there has been little reflection on these similarities and differences, or about how both languages can complement and enrich each other.