The Mathematics Learning Attributes Valued by Students in Eastern China

• Main Authors: Hengjun Tang (唐恒钧), Wee Tiong Seah (佘伟忠), Qiaoping Zhang (张侨平), Weizhong Zhang (张维忠)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2021-06-01
• Series: ECNU Review of Education
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2096531120930240

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.