Changing students’ images of “mathematics as a discipline”

• 23 students are followed for 1 year while exposed to 2 teaching modules.
• Changes in the students’ beliefs/views are identified and attributed to the modules.
• Findings: growth in consistency between students’ beliefs; in justification; and exemplification.
• Based on findings a model is suggested assessing development of students’ beliefs/views.
• 3 case studies of students deepen the findings.

The article describes and discusses a study of upper secondary students’ changes in beliefs/views about (or images of) mathematics as a (scientific) discipline. A class of 23 students is followed over a one-year period, in which they were involved in the conduction of two specially designed teaching modules. Through questionnaires, individual interviews, and video recordings (in particular of one focus group of students), different types of changes in the students’ beliefs/views about mathematics as a discipline were observed. As a final result of these detected changes, a small model for (or definition of) students’ reflected images of mathematics as a discipline is proposed.