An Exploration of Calculus Students’ Beliefs about Mathematics

Abraham Ayebo; Amaniel Mrutu

doi:10.29333/iejme/5728

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Abraham Ayebo ¹ ^* , Amaniel Mrutu ¹

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¹ University of Minnesota, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study explored the mathematics beliefs of students enrolled in a first year calculus class at a Midwestern university in the United States. The Indiana Mathematics Belief Scale was administered to 162 students enrolled in a first year calculus class during the first week of school. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to examine the factor structure of the survey instrument. Five factors were extracted: Effort, Usefulness, Difficult problems, Understanding, and Steps. Students’ responses were analyzed for inter-item correlation and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s α). The results were compared with similar studies conducted by Kloosterman and Stage (1992) as well as Berkaliev and Kloosterman (2009). The reliability obtained in this study was consistent with the previous studies. In particular, the Steps subscale was quite low (0.52). It might therefore make sense to drop the Steps subscale in future studies.

Keywords

mathematics
mathematics beliefs
problem solving
calculus students

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, 2019, Volume 14, Issue 2, 385-392

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5728

Publication date: 05 Mar 2019

Article Views: 2487

Article Downloads: 1775

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How to cite this article

APA

Ayebo, A., & Mrutu, A. (2019). An Exploration of Calculus Students’ Beliefs about Mathematics. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 14(2), 385-392. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5728

Vancouver

Ayebo A, Mrutu A. An Exploration of Calculus Students’ Beliefs about Mathematics. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2019;14(2):385-92. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5728

AMA

Ayebo A, Mrutu A. An Exploration of Calculus Students’ Beliefs about Mathematics. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2019;14(2), 385-392. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5728

Chicago

Ayebo, Abraham, and Amaniel Mrutu. "An Exploration of Calculus Students’ Beliefs about Mathematics". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2019 14 no. 2 (2019): 385-392. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5728

Harvard

Ayebo, A., and Mrutu, A. (2019). An Exploration of Calculus Students’ Beliefs about Mathematics. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 14(2), pp. 385-392. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5728

MLA

Ayebo, Abraham et al. "An Exploration of Calculus Students’ Beliefs about Mathematics". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 14, no. 2, 2019, pp. 385-392. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5728