This study is to explore the ways in which the affective characteristics of Korean middle school students have been developed and the ways in which they have an effect on their mathematics achievements by using TIMSS (the Trends in International Mathe ...

This study is to explore the ways in which the affective characteristics of Korean middle school students have been developed and the ways in which they have an effect on their mathematics achievements by using TIMSS (the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) data of 1995, 1999, and 2003. In addition, this study investigates the differences in affective variables between boys and girls toward mathematics. The result of the study indicates that the affective characteristics of Korean middle school students have changed a little, but that its effect on mathematics achievement increased a lot from 1995 to 2003. This study also shows that the Korean students study mathematics to get a job than to enter a university. However, girls have come to study it harder before going to college and it seems to have an impact on their mathematics scores; this happened in 1999. So we can infer from it that the decreasing in the difference between boys and girls in mathematics achievement may have been influenced by the girls' learning motivation to go to college. Lastly, it should be said that another analysis is needed to find out the reason for the devaluation of the importance of mathematics among the Korean middle school students.