Research On Senior High Students' Belief In Mathematics

Basic education is an important part of national education, in the basic education level,mathematics curriculum is an important course. Students'emotional factor has a significant influence on their mathmatics learning, however,of all these factors, students'mathematical educational belief are identified as a direct impact on their mathmatics learning. The research on the mathematical educational belief of students can help the teachers learn more about the students to develop a more targeted teaching,therefore improve the mathematics teaching efficiently.This thesis is about the research on the mathematical educational belief of senior high school students. Based on the previous studies,in the thesis, Mathematical educational belief of senior high school students consists of three parts:the belief in mathematics, the belief in mathematics learning and the belief in the students themselves. The research focused on the three parts and adopted the method of questionaire surveys.The questionnaire is in the form of choices and open-ended questions.Differ from most of the previous researches, this research is made according to students'grade, sex, schools,marks and the educational background of their parents, besides the overall situation of Mathematical educational belief among senior high school students.According to the results of the research, senior high school students'attitude towards mathematics is positive on the whole. They have an open mind about mathematics. They have a correct understanding on the object of mathematical study They believe mathematics is a dynamic process and recognize its value in developing thinking and in practical application. Most of the senior high school students surveyed are fond of mathematics, interesting is considered as the principal reason. They are award of the importance of learning methods and habits. They believe everyone can learn mathematics well as long as they work hard. The students think the purpose of doing exercises is to understand better what mathematics is all about. Besides, they are able to analyze the reasons behind their marks and have a clear idea of the role teachers play in their learning. The most popular math teachers are those who has the qualities of responsibility,affinity and sense of humor, so the students can enjoy the lively classes performed by these qualified teachers. What the students are longing for is the entertaining class which is full of teacher-student interaction and the interactions among students.However, the research also uncovers some problems that educators have to pay attention to. For example, more than half of the students do not think the mathematical knowledge learned in the school is useful in their daily life and nearly half of them think learning mathematics is difficult. They don't have a deep understanding of some mathematical problems,or even one-side understanging or misperseptions. And they don't have a general and deep understanding of the beauty and interest of mathematics. Their cognition of mathematical nature is controdictory. What is even worse is that they don't have strong confidence or motivations in learning mathematics, assuming that it is too difficult to learn. In the study methods and habits, they do not pay attention to the links between knowledge,the knowledge of the system order, the reflection after problem solving. Their motivation of learning is mainly to achieve a satisfactory result in the test.Furthermore, the research also shows that parents'educational background does not make great difference to students'attitude towards mathematics. Neither do grade and sex. Whereas the students from different schools show a distinct difference in responding to one-third of the questions and students having different examination marks give different answers to two-thirds of the questions.According to the result of the research, in order to improve the mathematics teaching, teachers should lay more emphasis on increasing students'interest, activating their motivations, guiding their learning methods and cultivating students' learning habit. Equally important, they should devote more time to helping the slow learners. Besides, teachers should improve their own quality and teaching philosophy as well.