Effects of Students' Beliefs on Mathematics and Achievement of University Students: Regression Analysis Approach (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION The swift competition and progress in a globally changing economic and technological environment have been one of the driving forces for enhancing educational accountability in many countries (Martin et al., 1998). It is absolutely necessary for a nation to improve its standards of teaching, research and practice in science, mathematics, technology and engineering. As a consequence, professional and business guidelines have been developed over the last two decades to strengthen mathematics and science curriculum standards. The Malaysian government had announced a new education policy to strengthen the education standards in science and technology to compete with advanced countries and vowed to stand in the list of developed countries in 2020 (Mahathir, 1991). For example in the United States, national organizations produced documents to advocate curriculum articulation between mathematics and science education (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, 2000; National Research Council, 1996). Meanwhile, educators in the United Kingdom adopted interdisciplinary approaches in the development of its national curriculum (Nixon, 1991). The Curriculum Council of Western Australia (1998) also recommended teaching methods across traditional subject boundaries (Venville et al., 1998).