Mediation Effects of the Epistemological Belief of Mathematics between Mathematical Knowledge and Belief of Learning Mathematics

No one would disagree the importance of teacher knowledge in teaching and students learning. However, it might not be reasonable to connect teacher knowledge and students performance directly because of the complex nature of teaching and learning. The study investigated teaching aspect in depth, the relationship between teachers’ mathematical knowledge and beliefs. A mediation model of the relationship between mathematical knowledge and beliefs was proposed based on the previous studies and tested statistically. The study employed database of Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M 2008) because it provides appropriate data for investigating research questions of the study; it collected data of prospective teachers at the end of their teacher education program about mathematics knowledge for teaching and beliefs. In the relationship between mathematical knowledge and the belief of learning mathematics, it was found that the belief of the nature of mathematics mediates the relationship significantly. The results of the study suggests that improving mathematics content knowledge might be the starting point of teacher education program.