Malaysian secondary school students’ values in mathematics learning: A preliminary analysis

This study examined 380 secondary school students’ values in mathematics learning in Malaysia using the What I Find Important (in mathematics learning) questionnaires. The preliminary analysis shows that Malaysian secondary students valued the attributes of “process”, “fun”, “effort”, “objectism”, “ideas and practice”, “exposition”, “recalling”, and “openness”. Among different ethnics’ groups, Chinese students tended to value “process” and “application” more than other ethnic groups. Malay students valued “hard work” and “effort” more than their peers in learning mathematics. In terms of gender difference, the result shows that Malaysian secondary school boys and girls valued almost the same value attributes in learning mathematics. The results provide some insights into understanding mathematics teaching and learning from the multicultural classroom context. Copyright © 2021 left to authors.