Abstract
Today, commencing university students come from a diversity of backgrounds and have a broad range of abilities and attitudes. It is well known that attitudes towards mathematics, especially mathematics anxiety, can affect students’ performance to the extent that mathematics is often seen as a barrier to success by many. This paper reports on the design, development and evaluation of an interactive multimedia resource designed to explicitly address students’ beliefs and attitudes towards mathematics by following five characters as they progress through the highs and low of studying a preparatory mathematics course. The resource was built within two theoretical frameworks, one related to effective numeracy teaching (Marr and Helme 1991) and the other related to effective educational technology development (Laurillard 2002). Further, it uses a number of multimedia alternatives (video, audio, animations, diarying, interactive examples and self assessment) to encourage students to feel part of a group, to reflect on their feelings and beliefs about mathematics, to expose students to authentic problem solving and generally build confidence through practice and self-assessment. Evaluation of the resource indicated that it encouraged students to value their own mathematical ability and helped to build confidence, while developing mathematical problem solving skills. The evaluation clearly demonstrated that it is possible to address the affective domain through multimedia initiatives and that this can complement the current focus on computer mediated communication as the primary method of addressing affective goals within the online environment.
Highlights
To be successful at university studies, students need to be academically numerate
It is clear that in the search for alternative methods, the importance of the relationship between the affective and cognitive aspects of student learning cannot be ignored. This relationship is one of the lynchpins of constructivist learning theory, and instructional programs in mathematics, especially those designed for adult students returning to study mathematics, must develop both aspects simultaneously to be effective
Bandura’s (1997) social cognitive theory maintains it is students’ beliefs about the value of a learning activity, their expectation of success and their enjoyment of it that will motivate them to undertake it (Pintrich and de Groot 1990). Such components of the affective domain have been discussed widely in the literature for many years, especially in the adult education literature where historically, high levels of mathematics anxiety have been recorded in adult students returning to university study (Benn and Burton 1993, Benn 1997, O'Donoghue 2000, Taylor and Mohr 2001)
Summary
To be successful at university studies, students need to be academically numerate. This involves skills in manipulating and interpreting quantitative components of tertiary curricula, but having the confidence to engage with these components. In addition to sections on mathematical examples (with interactive tools and animations) and a diary (with note taking and a reflective journal), the CD-ROM uses a number of different techniques, outlined below, to engage the students and to address the objectives of the initiative. At relevant points along the sequence, students are given the option to link to alternative parts of the package such as glossary, character reflections, personal diary, video stories, group discussions, examples and Self Test.
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