The construct of attitude in mathematics education research: current trends and new research challenges from a systematic literature review

Abstract The crucial role of attitude towards mathematics in the processes of teaching and learning mathematics is now recognized by both school practitioners and researchers in the field. However, “attitude” is a construct borrowed by disciplines other than mathematics education, and it is still conceptualized in various ways within the broad body of research about the role of affect in the teaching and learning of mathematics. In this context, developing a systematic literature review is particularly significant to characterise the recent trends—through the critical description of studies, foci, and approaches—and to guide future research by highlighting new possible research challenges in light of the current state of the art. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, this paper describes the systematic literature analysis of 180 papers published between the beginning of 2016 and the end of 2023, sourced from the Web of Science and Elsevier’s Scopus databases. The review confirms the worldwide interest and production about attitude towards mathematics, highlighting new remarkable findings and interests, such as the critical discussion about the translation of validated scales, as well as the persistence of some typical critical issues related to the “quantitative domain” in methodologies and to the widespread absence of precise definitions for attitude or of appropriate theoretical frameworks.