Epistemological beliefs about the nature of mathematics affect how a student perceives
mathematics in general, whereas high motivation for mathematics gives an individual a personal
reason to study the subject. Epistemological beliefs and achievement motives are quite stable at
individual level, but previous research has shown that there are significant differences across
students with respect to them. This study concerns university students from three different study
programs and investigates relations between the students' epistemological beliefs, motivational
values, and study habits. The data were collected using a questionnaire and consist of responses
from altogether 98 students studying mathematics courses at tertiary level. The study revealed
that, when students are grouped according to their study programs, their motivational values vary
across these groups more than their epistemological beliefs. The stability of epistemological
beliefs was also verified in this study as the strengths of the beliefs hardly correlated with the
number of passed credits or self-evaluated study success. However, several sum variables
representing the motivational values and epistemological beliefs seem to predict certain study
habits in linear regression models. These models can help us to design the teaching of
mathematics courses favouring these study habits.
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