In this study, we investigated how students’ attitude toward mathematics is related to mathematical reasoning skills through the TIMSS 2011 in comparing the differences between the U.S. and Finland. We uses three TIMSS variables to observe students’ attitude toward mathematics: liking mathematics, valuing mathematics, and confidence in mathematics. We applied a multistep linear regression model including interactions of the attitude variables and a mathematics reasoning score. As a result, we found that confidence in mathematics had positive relationships with mathematics reasoning at any levels of other attitude variables in both countries while liking mathematics and valuing mathematics showed significant interactions with other attitude variables. Generally, Finland showed stronger relationships than the U.S. The findings suggested mathematics educators and policymakers not to imitate others’ education systems with regard to the complex relationships between attitude and reasoning.

Session Type: Poster Session