subjects in the study. To determine if attitudes and beliefs have this profound of effect on American students' performance in mathematics, research believes that it may be helpful to compare American students to Chinese students. By providing comparative data, the researcher found marked differences in the beliefs of American and Taiwanese students in four areas under investigation: how to do well in mathematics, what math sloutions should be, motivation. The present study makes a potentially important contribution to our understanding of child development and education in two cultures. Poor performance by American students on tests of mathematics and science has reached the level of a national crisis. Why is this? Study after study has reported on one or another facet of the low standing of Americans in international competition. For example, in a recent cross-national study of mathematics achievement, American students in the eighth and twelfth grades were below the international average in problem solving, geometry, algebra, calculus, and other