Secondary school mathematics student teachers’ causal attribution for success and failure in mathematics
Journal Title: European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - Year 2016, Vol 4, Issue 3
Abstract
Attribution theory deals with the question of how individuals make judgments and seek to explain how they consider the causes of their behaviours and those of others. Attributions have the potential to affect beliefs, emotions and behaviour. Therefore, attribution theory has significantly contributed to the studies on motivation. This study examined student teachers’ causal attributions for success and failure in mathematics. The participants in this study were 28 student teachers in the department of secondary school mathematics education at a public university in the north of Turkey. To collect data, a questionnaire composed of one open?ended question was administered to the student teachers and they were asked to write their opinion about the causes of a student’s failure and success in mathematics. Student teachers wrote and submitted a reflection of one or two pages. Their written responses were examined and qualitatively analysed to determine the common themes by means of qualitative analysis software. The results have revealed that the student teachers categorize four causes to attribute for the students’ failure in mathematics: causes originating from students, causes originating from teaching and learning methods, causes originating due to the nature of mathematics itself and physical causes. The most frequent cause mentioned by the student teachers was innate math talent, an internal, stable and uncontrollable cause.
Authors and Affiliations
Savaş Baştürk| Elementary Mathematics Teacher Education, Sinop University, Sinop, Turkey For correspondence: sbasturk@sinop.edu.tr
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP8109
- DOI -
- Views 396
- Downloads 25
Adapting a math book to the arab world region: Benefits on the learning process
An instructor in the Arab world teaching a math course is used to the unfortunate situation where he wants to follow a well-known book whose reputation is long established and yet, all books he can find have been written...
What happens when a climber falls? Young climbers mathematise a climbing situation
Students in Norway and other countries experience vectors as a difficult topic. Four young skilled climbers, who all did well in mathematics at school, participated in the Vector Study (VS). They participated for free an...
Design-based research as an innovation approach in the construction and evaluation of IBSME
Inquiry-based science and mathematics education (hereinafter IBSME) is a current, supported and implemented teaching/learning method in science and mathematics education. IBSME aims to increase the self-efficacy of teach...
Fallacious argumentation in student reasoning: Are there benefits?
This article reports on an analysis of episodes of invalid or controversial arguments that occurred while two different groups of students worked on similar fraction tasks and examine the role that these types of argumen...
The relation between mathematical object/mathematical name: Conceptual changes between designation, description, denomination and definition
The actions of designation, description, denotation, denomination and definition are crucial in the didactic activity in the classroom (D'Amore and Fandiño Pinilla, 2012) since they embody different interplays between ob...