Abstract
The purpose of this research is to gather empirical evidence for attribution theory (Weiner in J Educ Psychol 71(1):3–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.71.1.3, 1979) to explain students’ feelings of helplessness when learning mathematics. The relationships between mathematics literacy in PISA 2012 and learned helplessness were also observed. Korean and Finnish students’ responses were analyzed with ordinal and linear regression analyses. Similar patterns were found between the two countries when students attributed their failure to either ability or task difficulty, but different relationships were found for other attributions. The findings indicated necessity of cultural factors in addition to the attribution theory to understand students’ helplessness in learning mathematics better.
Highlights
Korean teachers and educators have recognized the issue that increasing numbers of students give up on mathematics
The questions guiding this research are: (1) What are the probabilities that Korean and Finnish students feel learned helplessness when they attribute academic outcomes to the following perceived causes via Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012: academic ability, the effort spent in preparation, difficulty of tasks, and luck elements? And (2) what are the differences between Korean and Finnish students in the relationships between their feelings of learned helplessness and mathematic achievement?
Locus of control and learned helplessness The analysis results showed that Korean students are likely to feel learned helplessness in the following cases: (1) students agree that their failure was due to their abilities; (2) students disagree that they are able to succeed in mathematics with enough effort; (3) students strongly agree that course materials are difficult; and (4) students strongly agree that students’ failure in mathematics is because of misfortune
Summary
Korean teachers and educators have recognized the issue that increasing numbers of students give up on mathematics. Few studies have been conducted solely on how many Korean students could be labelled as mathematics abandoners (see Na et al 2016). As seen in Jung’s news article (2015), Koreans believe the main reasons for avoiding learning mathematics are difficult curriculum, preparation for college entrance exams, and traditional mathematics instruction. These factors do not fully describe the situation, which seems like a complex problem related to psychological (e.g., motivation and attitude toward mathematics), educational (e.g., curriculum, high-stakes tests, and instructional approach) and sociological factors (e.g., socioeconomic status) simultaneously. It is still necessary to gather research evidence about why Korean students are discouraged in learning mathematics
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