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Worldviews, religions, and beliefs about teaching and learning: perception of mathematics teachers with different religious backgrounds

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Abstract

Beliefs about mathematics education and their influences on teaching practices have been widely investigated in recent decades. There have been numerous empirical studies on the influences of religions on teachers’ and students’ beliefs about subjects such as sciences and language. However, the influences of worldviews in general and religions in particular, as one of the major sources of beliefs in relation to mathematics education, are under-researched. The current study is a first step to unpacking the relationship between teachers’ religions and their beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning. By means of semi-structured interviews with mathematics teachers of different religious backgrounds, teachers’ perceptions on the connection between their personal religious beliefs and their beliefs about teaching and learning are investigated. In-depth analyses of the perceptions of three mathematics teachers reveal the complex relationship between teachers’ religious beliefs and their teaching beliefs. First, there are some common values shared by different religions, which influence the beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning as well as education in general. Second, religion is a rich belief system, and the teachers appear to apply only a portion of their religious beliefs to guide their teaching. It is also possible that a teacher is influenced by more than one religion or cultural tradition. Despite its subtleties, our study provides evidence to support the alignment between teachers’ personal religious beliefs and their beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning.

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Notes

  1. Different terminologies such as “conception”, “belief”, “view”, and “image” have been used in the literature. Although it has been argued that there may be subtle differences (Philipp, 2007), we use these terms interchangeably in our study.

  2. Referring to Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism

  3. Carol did not explain what Chinese classics she read. However, we inferred from our interview that she was referring to the Confucian Canon of Four Books.

  4. Five cardinal human relations (wu lun) is an important tenet in Confucianism. It “refers to the five dyadic relationships between ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife, older and younger brother, and friends” (Sun, 2013, pp. 11–12).

  5. Ji He Yuan Ben is the Chinese title of the Elements translated by Xu Guang-qi.

  6. Advanced Level

  7. “Cyclic existence” (or samsara) is one of the core Buddhist doctrines. It means that one continues to be reborn in the various forms of existence, no matter whether human, animal, or as other beings.

  8. Diploma of Secondary Education examination, taken at the end of 6 years of secondary school study.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all teachers who contributed to this study. We are grateful to Prof. Chi-Chung Lam and Prof. Corinne Maxwell-Reid for commenting on an early draft of the manuscript. Special thanks also to the three anonymous reviewers and the editor Dr. Norma Presmeg for their critical yet constructive comments. This work was financially supported by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Research Committee Funding (Direct Grants) (Project Code: 2080082). The errors and inconsistencies remain our own.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Yip-Cheung Chan & Ngai-Ying Wong

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  1. Yip-Cheung Chan
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  2. Ngai-Ying Wong
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Correspondence to Yip-Cheung Chan.

Appendix. Open-ended questions of the questionnaire

Appendix. Open-ended questions of the questionnaire

(The original questions were in Chinese. The following are English translations of the questions.)

  1. 1.

    Why did you decide to become a mathematics teacher?

  2. 2.

    What kind of qualities do you expect to nurture in your students?

  3. 3.

    Some students marginally handle unfamiliar topics in mathematics curriculum such as algebra but find that they do not really need such mathematical knowledge in their occupation and daily life. Furthermore, some students do not have interest and do not understand what they learn in mathematics but still can get a quite good academic result. How do you face these phenomena in your teaching?

  4. 4.

    Some people think that probability is not suitable to be taught to students: dices and playing cards are usually used as examples and hence it is a gambling-related topic. Suppose the Education Bureau asks your opinions on adding or removing topics in mathematics curriculum. How will you react?

  5. 5.

    Are there any mathematics topics or mathematics teaching methods which are in conflict with your religious beliefs? If so, how would you handle them?

  6. 6.

    Are there any mathematics topics or mathematics teaching methods which can demonstrate your religious beliefs? Can you give some examples as an illustration.

  7. 7.

    Do you think there is any difference between a teacher who believes in X and one who does not believe in X? (Remark: X is the religion which the respondent subscribes. For the respondent who does not subscribe to any religion, the question is read as: Do you think there is any difference between a teacher who subscribes to a religion and one who does not?)

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Chan, YC., Wong, NY. Worldviews, religions, and beliefs about teaching and learning: perception of mathematics teachers with different religious backgrounds. Educ Stud Math 87, 251–277 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-014-9555-1

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