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The Mathematics Learning Attributes Valued by Students in Eastern China - Hengjun Tang (唐恒钧), Wee Tiong Seah (佘伟忠), Qiaoping Zhang (张侨平), Weizhong Zhang (张维忠), 2021 (sagepub.com)
Article Information
Article first published online: June 29, 2020; Issue published: June 1, 2021
Received: December 20, 2019; Accepted: May 07, 2020
Author
Hengjun Tang (唐恒钧)
Zhejiang Normal University
Wee Tiong Seah (佘伟忠)
The University of Melbourne
Qiaoping Zhang (张侨平)
The Education University of Hong Kong
Weizhong Zhang (张维忠)
Zhejiang Normal University
Abstract
Purpose: Given that prior research has confirmed that students’ mathematics values significantly affect their mathematics learning, understanding how students’ values form and change, especially during different learning stages, is an important topic.
Design/Approach/Methods: This study administered a questionnaire to investigate the values of primary, junior high, and senior high school students in Eastern China. A principal component analysis was conducted to investigate the factor structure of the students’ learning values. Then, paired sample t-tests were used to examine the differences in the two continuous categories ranking of each group, and a one-way analysis of variance with a Brown–Forsythe test was used to test the differences in the ranking of each dimension by the different grade-level groups.
Findings: We found that students’ mathematics learning values consist of seven elements: culture, memorization, technology, objectism, practice, understanding, and control. Students placed different degrees of importance on these seven elements at different learning stages. Additionally, we found that junior high school is a critical period of change in students’ values.
Originality/Value: These findings will be invaluable to teachers and educators as they reflect on their teaching approaches. Moreover, the findings that students’ values undergo changes in the course of their schooling are important information for educators seeking to foster students’ learning.
Keywords
Eastern Chinese learners, mathematics learning, values