A Elementary Research On Junior Student's Epistemic Beliefs About Mathematics

Student's epistemic beliefs about mathematics have attracted concerns and research in recent years, and lots of researchers have confirmed the importance of learners'epistemic beliefs in the learning process. Some beliefs may have an implicit influence on learners'learning process. Compared to the research condected in Western countries, much remains to be carried out in China, concerning the theoretical and methodological aspects. The epistemic beliefs of junior students in China lack relatively study in particular. This research, therefore, take these concerns into account.The researcher adopted a questionnaire to carry out a survey on some senior students in Wenzhou. The questionnaire contains the following catalogues: the potential factors in students'epistemic beliefs --- their affection, and their interest and hobbies that may affect students'performance in the examinations. The following results were obtained:1.According to the results, there are mainly four independent aspects in mathematics learning: leaning ability, knowledge stability, learning methods, and knowledge formation. The finding differs from that pointed out by Schommer. Thus, culture differences may cause the variation in different learners'epistemic beliefs.2.Gender difference may have no influence on learners'beliefs.3.The results are significantly different according to the grades the learners are in. With the grades rising, the learners'participation in learning steadily reduces. No significant difference, however, is found among the other three aspects.4.The epistemic beliefs among students'of various cities seem to be diverse. Those from urban areas apprantly take a more active part in learning than students from rural areas.5.Different levels appear to be correlated with learners'epistemic beliefs. There seems to be most significant correlation in Grade Three, followed by Grade Two, and finally less correlation in Grade One. Similar correlations were found in all the four aspects.6.The epistemic beliefs of mathematics learning seems to be related to learning ability, learning methods and knowledge formation positively. Knowledge stability, learning methods and knowledge formation show a positive relation with one another.Besides, a positive correlation was found between learning methods and students'performance in mathematics learning.