The final questionnaire, having both open ended and choice items, was conducted with a sample of

238 female students enrolled in an institute of higher learning in the Middle East. The results of the
final study indicate that around 86% the participants hold broad conceptions of mathematics as: (a) a
school subject useful for everyday life, for work and I derive categories of conceptions which I used
to develop a draft questionnaire to be piloted. I introduced modifications based on the results of the
exploratory and pilot studies. for future studies (46%); (b) a form of mental activity useful for
developing intellectual and problem solving abilities (31%) and (c) a group of numbers and rules for
doing calculations (9%).The research is a survey with an iterative model consisting of eight stages.
These stages were conducted through three inter-related studies: exploratory, pilot and final. I
started with developing an open ended questionnaire for the exploratory study. Through data
analysis, I derive categories of conceptions which I used to develop a draft questionnaire to be
piloted. I introduced modifications based on the results of the exploratory and pilot studies.