Valuing from children's perspectives as a lens to understand mathematics learning: The case of Hong Kong

Values, as a culturally-specific notion, have a vital role to play in classroom mathematics learning. In this paper, we argue that valuing, especially from the children's perspective, serves as a lens for us to better understand on how they perform in mathematics learning. To develop such a lens, we investigated the componential structure of Hong Kong mathematics students' by utilising a values questionnaire as a lens to better understand what the students find important in mathematics learning. A Principal Component Analysis has been used in this study with the objective to interrogate the data. The analysis of the data led to the identification of nine components valued by Hong Kong students in their mathematics learning. We discuss the findings in terms of the Hong Kong culture in the context of Hong Kong and the value categories, and suggest implications for future research studies.