Facilitating Inclusive Practices in Mathematics Education for All Learners

Abstract

Inclusive education is now a global imperative driven by social and political dynamics. Yet realising this imperative for all students in mathematics education is difficult. The struggle of providing high quality inclusive mathematics education that meets the needs of all learners – including gifted, talented, creative and dissimilar learners – is one element of this challenge. A key component of inclusivity for these learners is the value they place upon their learning. This chapter explores the use of the previously developed What do I Find Important in Mathematics (WIFI) survey instrument to examine the measurement invariance of the instrument across learners in eight Countries/Economies: Ηong Kοng, Greece, Japan, Μacao, China, Μalaysia, Thailand and Turkey. Using a parallel analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) the good fit of the configural invariance as well as the metric invariance of the six-factor model was confirmed. Four of the factors: achievement, practice, ICT and development, showed satisfactory psychometric properties and the partial scalar invariance model showed a satisfactory fit. One-way ANOVA and pairwise comparisons tests were also conducted, showing that there was a certain degree of heterogeneity on how learners in the eight Countries/Economies view mathematics values. These results provide effective and valid identification of learners’ values about learning mathematics across the eight Countries/Economies and have implications for the teaching of mathematics to provide inclusivity for learners, especially the gifted, talented learners, creative and dissimilar learners.