Abstract

This study investigated students’ views regarding the value of mathematics. It reports on a smaller part of findings from a wider comparative study concerning student values of mathematics and mathematics education that belonged to Turkish students in Turkey, Turkish immigrant students in Germany, and German students in Germany. Students were in Grade 9 (14–15 years old) and the data was gathered through semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using the constant comparative method. The results revealed four major value categories for Turkish (practice, relevance, rationalism, and fun values) and German (relevance, fun, rationalism, and consolidating values) students while there were three major value categories for the immigrant students (relevance, rationalism, and communication).

Highlights

  • The process of values education occurs within a complex structure of the human interactions -such as learning, personal development, socializing and cognition- through the agencies of traditional customs, norms, and language

  • We examine and compare mathematics values of students living in different cultures (Turkish students in Turkey, Turkish immigrant students in Germany, and German students in Germany)

  • The results revealed that there were 9 different value indicators and 4 corresponding values for the Turkish students, 7 different value indicators and 3 corresponding values for the Turkish immigrant students, and 14 different value indicators and 4 corresponding values for the German students

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Summary

10.1 Introduction

The process of values education occurs within a complex structure of the human interactions -such as learning, personal development, socializing and cognition- through the agencies of traditional customs, norms, and language. In other words, these interactions occur in the context of culture. There is no consensus about the definition of the concept ‘culture’, often people have a general understanding of what culture is and what it requires In this regard, culture consists of values, beliefs, and concepts that are shared within a society (Venaik and Brewer 2008).

10.2.1 Values and Mathematics
10 Why Maths Is Valuable
10.2.2 Learning About Values Through Comparative Studies
10.3.1 Research Design
10.3.2 Participants
10.3.3 Semi-structured Interviews
10.3.4 Data Analysis
10.3.5 Trustworthiness
10.4 Results and Discussion
10.4.1 Similarities
10.4.2 Differences
10.5 Moving On
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