Mathematics education research has repeatedly shown that many elementary teachers and preservice elementary teachers (PSTs) carry negative attitudes and unhealthy beliefs about mathematics (e.g., Bursal & Paznokas, 2006). That research, however, has largely examined PSTs’ attitudes and beliefs about mathematics separately, rather than together, ignoring the research that has long asserted a relationship between the two (e.g., McLeod, 1992). Also, it has mostly focused on dislike of mathematics or mathematics anxiety, rather than attending to the full range of attitudes, including positive ones. Lastly, attitudes have largely been examined holistically. While students may have a predominantly positive or negative attitude toward mathematics, they may also like or dislike particular aspects of mathematics. In this study, I examined the attitudes that a group of PSTs held toward mathematics concurrently with their beliefs about mathematics. I also explored the experiences they indicated had shaped those attitudes and beliefs. Lastly, I examined their “turning point stories,” or experiences that brought about significant change in attitudes or beliefs (Drake, 2006), to track the most drastic changes in their attitudes. I used qualitative research methods to explore a range of written and spoken data that addressed these issues—including mathematics autobiographies, free-response survey questions, and interviews in which participants graphed their changing attitudes over time.Findings indicate that these PSTs’ attitudes and beliefs were interrelated, complex, and not easily captured by force-choice or Likert-type survey items. These PSTs’ attitudes and beliefs fluctuated based on their experiences with mathematics, especially as connected to teachers and performance outcomes. This group also reported their attitudes as more positive than negative, though the data also suggest complexity about how they selected their attitude ratings. Findings also indicated that many PSTs had come to their teacher preparation program with beliefs about mathematics that were directly oppositional to some of their peers (e.g., only one solution path for solving a problem versus many possible paths). PSTs at all levels of attitude (i.e., liking or disliking mathematics) reported negative experiences with mathematics, where some categories of experiences were either generally positive (e.g., working with a tutor) or negative (e.g., taking mathematics tests). Positive turning points in attitudes toward mathematics were located in high school and college, whereas negative turning points were reported across all levels of schooling. PSTs most-often described their experiences with mathematics as a “roller coaster,” with teachers being the most-common cause of turning points in their attitudes toward mathematics.These results have important methodological, pedagogical, and theoretical implications for research on preservice elementary teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about mathematics. First, simple or Likert-scale surveys may obscure the complexity and dynamic, changing nature of people’s attitudes and beliefs about mathematics. This study provides some methodological alternatives. For instruction, teachers hold substantial power in shaping their students’ attitudes and beliefs about mathematics, but teacher preparation programs can be a site of recovery. In exploring the relationship between attitudes, beliefs, and experiences, this study suggests focusing future research on the dynamic, multidirectional relationships among the three.
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