Chapter 4: Beliefs: What Lies Behind the Mirror?

Some years ago, Günter Törner and I,together with Erkki Pehkonen, edited a book—Beliefs: A hiddenvariable in mathematics education? (Leder, Törner, &Pehkonen, 2002). Of the reviews it received, I was particularly taken with the one by John Mason (2004) who set the context for the book asfollows:

Though presumably written at least in part “tongue in cheek,” Mason’s creative beliefs-alphabe provided a strong impetus for a more detailed look at current research on beliefs—a topic of undoubted interest to Günter.Two recently held annual conferences, those of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education [PME]¹ and of the Mathematics Education Research GroupofAustralasia [MERGA]² served as convenient and timely data sources of recent research.