| Chapter 1 is a description of the development and utilization of a survey instrument for the assessment of student dispositions with respect to mathematics, but particularly prospective elementary teachers' dispositions. From a review of the literature, it was found that many, and at times inconsistent, operationalizations of the disposition construct were being used to explore the nature of student dispositions with respect to mathematics. Presented here is a conceptual framework composed of three modes of dispositional functioning, cognitive, affective, and conative, comprising ten subcategories of dispositional functions. The proposed framework may offer some consistency to the language used by educators and researchers alike, as well as a more 'focused' lens for examining issues related to student dispositions with respect to mathematics. The proposed framework was used to guide the development of the instrument used in the current study, the Mathematics Dispositional Functions Inventory. In addition, measures taken to strengthen the validity and reliability associated with the instrument are reported here. Results provide empirical support for the proposed ten-factor structure used in the instrument. Estimates of internal consistency reliability are given as well.;In Chapter 2, the Mathematics Dispositional Functions Inventory (MDFI) was used to examine the relationship between prospective teachers' dispositions and their achievement in mathematics, describe the dispositional profile for the entire sample of prospective teachers and then for the subsequent achievement groups. Research suggests that components of student dispositions with respect to mathematics can mediate learning via how students may or may not take advantage of opportunities to learn. Consequently, one might expect that there would be measurable differences in the relationship between various elements of students' dispositions and achievement in mathematics. One hundred seven prospective teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program at a mid-sized, mid-Atlantic university participated in this study by taking a researcher-designed survey, the Mathematics Dispositional Functions Inventory (MDFI). Achievement was measured by the average of grades participants earned on two exams given in the mathematics course taken during the administration of the MDFI. Three achievement groups (high, moderate, and low) were determined based on the distribution of achievement scores. Results indicate that significant differences in prospective teachers' dispositions with respect to mathematics occur according to achievement in mathematics in two of the three primary categories of dispositional functioning, affective and conative, but not in the third category, dispositional cognitive functioning. |
