Do Classes and Schools Have an Effect on Attitudes towards Mathematics?

In this study we investigate differences among students, classes and schools in attitudes towards mathematics focusing on the student and home characteristics, group composition, and learning environment characteristics. We used data from TIMSS-R and our dataset consists of 4168 eighth-grade Flemish students, 261 classes and 133 secondary schools. Multilevel analyses showed that most of the difference in attitudes towards mathematics is situated between students from the same class (84.4%); 13.3% is between classes from the same school and 2.3% between schools. Cognitive abilities and the parents’ education as well as the extent to which students experience the teaching as being constructivist (individually and as a group) and the class learning climate could explain differences. The school composition with respect to the sex mix causes differential effects for girls and boys (an equal sex mix favours boys) and also in relation to students with different comfort at home.