Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Belief and Attitude of Pre-service Teachers and Academic Achievement

Jaime Segarra,Carme Julià

doi:10.30935/scimath/11381

Abstract

Given the importance of the beliefs and attitudes of the pre-service teachers, this research aims at studying the relation between mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers, their attitude towards mathematics and their mathematics academic achievement. Specifically, this work considers both factors together and studies their correlation with mathematics academic achievement. The Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (MTEBI) is used to measure the teachers’ efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers. Besides, the Attitude towards Mathematics Scale (AMS) is used to rate students’ attitude towards mathematics. Participants are 57 pre-service teachers of the third year of the primary education degree. Students of third years of the bachelor’s degree were invited to answer the MTEBI and AMS. Obtained results reaffirm that both teachers’ efficacy beliefs and attitude towards mathematics are key factors for pre-service teacher’s mathematics academic achievement. Moreover, the two factors correlate moderately with one another. Furthermore, results manifest that Personal Mathematics Teaching Eﬃcacy (PMTE) is the most determining subscale for academic achievement. It is evidenced the importance of strengthening both the pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs and the attitude towards mathematics.

Highlights

Existing research is concerned about the low mathematical elementary content knowledge of preservice teachers (e.g., Mapolelo & Akinsola, 2015; Wu et al, 2018)
Given the importance of the beliefs and attitudes of the pre-service teachers, this research aims at studying the relation between mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers, their attitude towards mathematics and their mathematics academic achievement
Literature research supports the importance of enhancing the pre-service teachers’ mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs (e.g., Bursal, 2010; Moody & DuCloux, 20015; Yang et al, 2020) and their attitude towards mathematics (e.g., Hourigan & Leavy, 2019; Michaluk et al, 2018), and how these factors influence to the mathematics academic achievement (e.g., Charalambous et al, 2009; Leavy et al, 2017; Ma & Kishor, 1997)

Summary

Introduction

Existing research is concerned about the low mathematical elementary content knowledge of preservice teachers (e.g., Mapolelo & Akinsola, 2015; Wu et al, 2018) This low mathematical content knowledge might provoke poor results in their mathematical academic achievement. Literature research supports the importance of enhancing the pre-service teachers’ mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs (e.g., Bursal, 2010; Moody & DuCloux, 20015; Yang et al, 2020) and their attitude towards mathematics (e.g., Hourigan & Leavy, 2019; Michaluk et al, 2018), and how these factors influence to the mathematics academic achievement (e.g., Charalambous et al, 2009; Leavy et al, 2017; Ma & Kishor, 1997). As pointed out in Hannula (2012), it is still important and interesting to investigate the impact of variables concerning teachers’ mathematics related effect on other affective or cognitive variables such as academic achievement

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion