A Comparative Study On Middle School Students' Belief Systems About Mathematics Of Korean And Han Nationality

Students'belief systems about mathematics influence their mathematics achievement directly. Domestic and foreign researches on students'belief systems about mathematics focus on the discussion about the relationship between belief system and mathematics achievement, the prediction of achievement, gender and phase differences, and the belief system cross-culture. Though there were many important results, researches about students'belief system cross-national were few.This paper attempted to answer the following questions:1. Are there any national differences between Korean and Han nationality middle school students'belief systems about mathematics?2. Are there any national differences between Korean and Han nationality junior high school students'belief systems about mathematics?3. Are there any national differences between Korean and Han nationality senior high school students'belief systems about mathematics?4. Are there any gender differences on Korean and Han nationality middle school students'students'belief systems about mathematics?5. Are there any phase differences on Korean and Han nationality middle school students'students'belief systems about mathematics?6. Is there any correlative relationship among the beliefs in the systems?In order to solve the problems above, this paper based on analysis on many related literatures at home and abroad, developed a questionnaire. The reliability and validity were ensured by the tests of Pearson product-moment correlation and Cronbach's alpha, and factor analysis method. This research investigated 979 middle school students of Korean and Han nationality from 9 cities in Liaoning and Jilin Provinces. We used SPSS16.0 to analyze the collected data by using the mean value, cluster analysis, and the independent sample T-Test, identify and compare the Korean and Han Nationality Middle School Students'beliefs about Mathematics, mathematics learning and teaching, self related with mathematics, and environment of learning. We also used Pearson product-moment correlation to test the correlative relationships of beliefs in the systems.It concluded that Middle School Students'Belief Systems about Mathematics of Korean and Han Nationality were instability and compound; there were differences between the belief systems about mathematics of Korean Nationality students and Han Nationality students; there was no gender difference in the students'belief systems about mathematics of Han Nationality, and there were gender differences on the students'belief systems about mathematics of Korean Nationality; there were phase differences on the belief systems about mathematics of Korean and Han Nationality students; there were differences on the correlative relationships of beliefs in the systems between Korean and Han nationality middle school students. Teachers, parents, school and educational administrative departments should provide the advantages for students to form and develop the beliefs. Future researches should compare belief systems between Han Nationality and other minority nationalities, and between minority nationalities and minority nationalities, and give suggestions.