Investigation of the relationship between learning concepts and mathematical thinking of secondary school students with canonical correlation analysis

In this study, the relationship between secondary school students’ conceptions of learning and their mathematical thinking was examined. The study was conducted with 311 secondary school students using relational survey model. The data were collected with the learning conceptions scale and mathematical thinking scale, and the relationship between the variables was evaluated by canonical correlation analysis. The results revealed that there was a high level of relationship between students’ learning conceptions and mathematical thinking skills. It was determined that the sub-dimensions of learning conceptions, knowledge acquisition and use, and personal changes had a moderate inverse effect on mathematical thinking. In addition, the tendency for higher-order thinking sub-dimension made the highest contribution to the model but had an inverse relationship with learning conceptions. These findings provide important clues to understand the effect of learning conceptions on mathematical thinking.