An exploration of affective and demographic factors regarding mathematical thinking and reasoning of university students

The purpose of this study is two-fold: It aims to determine the factors that are influential in undergraduate students' approaches to studying, self-efficacy, problem solving strategies, competency in mathematical thinking and reasoning; to identify any gender, grade level, and regional differences among the identified factors and on the overall competency in mathematical thinking and reasoning of undergraduate students and prospective teachers. The factors were identified through the adopted survey of approaches to studying and the competency test on mathematical thinking nd reasoning that was designed by the researcher. The scales were administered to 431 undergraduate students of mathematics, elementary and secondary mathematics education in Ankara and in Northern Cyprus and to prospective teachers of classroom teacher education and early childhood education of teacher training academy in Northern Cyprus. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were employed to determine the factors and the differences with respect to gender, region and grade level separately and their dual, triple interaction effects were investigated through two two-way MANOVA and a three-way ANOVA analyses. Results showed that significant gender, grade level differences across identified dimensions of the survey and region, gender and grade level differences across the dimensions of the test and on the total test. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.