INSERVICE TEACHERS' ATTRIBUTIONS FOR MATHEMATICAL SUCCESS.

Beliefs teachers hold influence the judgments they make about their students, and opportunities they provide for engaging them in rigorous mathematics. While math-related beliefs have been widely studied, less is known about teachers' attributional beliefs (i.e., beliefs about people's actions or behaviors) for mathematical success. In this study we investigated in-service elementary teachers' stated beliefs about mathematical success. Findings show that teachers attribute mathematical success to factors that are both internal and external to the student. Although teachers explicitly stated that race and gender were not factors, many used descriptors that served as proxies for students' demographic markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]