4th and 5th grade elementary school students' beliefs about the nature of mathematics and the teaching of mathematics

there are reciprocal relationships between students? beliefs about mathematics andtheir mathematical performence; students? beliefs about mathematics and their attitude towardmathematics; and students beliefs about mathematics and their success. To understandstudents? beliefs about mathematics will give us the opportunity to support their positivebeliefs about mathematics and to change their belief to be less negative or to be positive.The study is carried out in a district of Bursa with 137 4th grade and 139 5th grade,with a total of 276 students from 3 different elementary schools. Beliefs about the nature ofmathematics and beliefs about the teaching of mathematics scales were utilized. Thereliability of these scales were tested. For the present study the causal comparative study andcross sectional survey method were used. The hypotheses of the present study were tested byusing multivariate analysis of variance at the significance level 0,025. After utilizing thescales, four students from each of the three schools, with a total of 12 students wereinterviewed.The results of the study indicated that; 1.There was no statistically significant meandifference among the students according the schools they enrolled, on beliefs about the natureof mathematics and beliefs about the teaching of mathematics; 2. There was statisticallysignificant mean differences among the students who have different mathematics achievementlevel in terms of beliefs about the nature of mathematics and beliefs about the teaching ofmathematics. 3. There was no statistically significant mean difference among the studentsaccording the grade level, on beliefs about the nature of mathematics and beliefs about theteaching of mathematics.Most of the elementary school students liked mathematics and believed thatmathematics was a field which was worth to strive for. Researchers, students? parents, andteachers have responsibilities to make our students learn mathematics effectively, toappreciate mathematics and to have a better intelligence development.