Engagement In Mathematics Research Articles

Perceptions of the Senior High School Students on the Use of Classroom Response System in Learning Mathematics

Classroom Response System (CRS) is one of the educational tools teachers can use to promote active learning and improve student learning. Despite the promising benefits of the CRS, there is less account of its impact in secondary mathematics classrooms as compared to higher education. In this study, a descriptive survey design was used to describe the perception of Senior High School students on the use of the CRS in learning mathematics. Students were exposed to Blicker, a classroom response system tool that uses Bluetooth Low Energy to interact with the teacher. Survey shows that CRS increase students’ engagement, interactivity, and students perceived CRS to be beneficial for their learning. Moreover, students favored the CRS’ anonymity feature and enjoyed the affordability of the CRS to promote student-teacher interaction through the question-feedback process. The interview shared common themes on the CRS benefits and validated students’ claims that CRS attributed to an increase in engagement, interactivity, and learning in mathematics. Overall, the student’s perceptions of the use of CRS are overwhelmingly positive and students strongly recommend the use of CRS in other learning areas.

Content-focused coaches' opportunities for professional learning: The influence of positionality in coach discourse

As content-specific instructional coaching gains theoretical and empirical support, the field needs to better understand how such coaches develop content-specific knowledge and effective coaching practices. Collaborative engagement in mathematics has been found to be a useful support for teachers' professional learning about high-quality mathematics instruction. This discourse analysis explores how collaborative engagement in mathematics might support coaches' development. Since coaches are positioned differently than teachers, we analyze how coaches' discursive positioning while collaboratively engaged in mathematics influences their opportunities for professional learning. Drawing on video and interview data, our analysis highlights that positioning coaches as practitioners of mathematics and as teachers of record opened up opportunities for coaches to empathize with students' thinking and to consider instructional adaptations with respect to this empathetic view. However, coaches were rarely positioned as coaches while collaboratively engaged in mathematics, which constrained coaches' learning opportunities about coaching. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Multilingual Children’s Mathematical Engagement with Apps: What Can Be Learned from Multilingual Children’s Mathematical and Playful Participation when Interacting with Two Different Apps?

Abstract The use of digital tools is becoming increasingly common in early childhood education. One key to using digital tools to enhance learning in children may lie in using them the way children tend to when given the choice: as play. This article examines and evaluates multilingual children’s mathematical engagement with digital apps, focusing specifically on what might be learned from multilingual children’s mathematical and playful participation when interacting with two different apps. Mathematical engagement is here defined by Alan Bishop’s six mathematical activities: counting, measuring, locating, designing, playing and explaining. Helenius et al.’s elaboration of mathematical play is used to connect the mathematical play to the play of children. Multilingual children’s interactions with digital apps have been video recorded in natural settings in a kindergarten. The findings show that playful digital apps do promote the children’s participation in mathematical activities, while apps that aim to provide a formal learning structure seem to promote neither play nor mathematical activities.

Engagement in learning mathematics: the role of need for cognition and achievement goals

The hierarchical model of achievement motivation assumes that individual characteristics predict achievement goals, which further predict achievement outcomes. One of the individual characteristics that may be particularly important in subjects that require abstract reasoning, such as mathematics, is need for cognition. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the relationships between the students' need for cognition, achievement goals and different aspects of engagement in mathematics within the hierarchical model of achievement goals. The sample consisted of 543 students from six academic-track secondary schools. Participants completed self-report measures for need for cognition, achievement goals and engagement (both of the latter measures were related to the field of mathematics). Structural equation modelling was used in mediational analyses. Findings are consistent with the hierarchical model of achievement motivation and demonstrated that achievement goals mediated the relationship between the need for cognition and engagement in mathematics.

Non-Verbal Interaction and Students’ Visual Engagement in Mathematics and English classes

Background: The interactions in the classroom are of particular interest to the teaching and learning processes. Objectives: This study examines nonverbal interaction in mathematics classrooms, and how different modes of nonverbal behaviour, contributed to the engagement in lessons. Design: A quantitative study. Setting and Participants: 30 randomly selected students wore mini camera-mounted eyeglasses in their mathematics and English lessons. Approximately 45 hours of video recording were made from these cameras (from a first-person’s perspective) to analyse and compare the nonverbal interaction in mathematics and English lessons. Data collection and analysis: In Google Images, we objectively searched and statistically analysed frames in which the class teachers appeared within the students’ visual field. Results: The results show that how students are visually engaged with the teacher depends on a set of proxemics. Differences were found related to visual attention both regarding the subject matter and the different proxemics of the student in relation to the teacher, pointing out that students are more visually involved with the teachers’ instructions when at a proxemic of 1.20 to 3.70 meters. Furthermore, we report differences between boys and girls and how they are visually engaged in their mathematics classrooms. Conclusions: Finally, we report how teachers pointing gestures can serve as a tool to recapture student’s visual attention in mathematics classrooms.

Mathematics Engagement Clinic Grounded on Brain Dominance: Its Effect on Critical and Problem-Solving Skills, and Mathematics Achievement

Contextualization, localization, and indigenization have touched the ground of the dominant cultural character of learners. The teaching and learning process in the K to 12 curricula has integrated its essence. However, in recent ages, the border-crossing of digital culture among learners was prevalent in their attitudes and learning preferences. Cognitive preferences such as the students’ brain dominance must be considered in the lesson planning as an additional option. With a transformative worldview through an action research design, the study evoked the effects of Mathematics Engagement Clinic (MEC) grounded on brain dominance or the whole brain theory to critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and mathematics achievement. MEC has different effects on the left and right brain dominant participants in terms of their thinking processes such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In particular, left brain dominant participants have a distinct behavioral cognition which the researcher called affirmation behavioral learning. The implication of affirmation behavioral learning to the whole brain theory was a notion that brain dominance groups might have specific behavioral cognition. As for this study, affirmation behavioral learning was evident and observed among left-brain dominant participants. As affirmed by the quantitative result, the enhancement program Mathematics Engagement Clinic (MEC) grounded on the whole brain theory or brain dominance can hone thinking processes such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and thereby, improve mathematics achievement. Despite the abnormality distribution of participants in the study MEC has managed to cater to the participants’ preferences. With the positive effect of the enhancement program, MEC grounded on brain dominance on the thinking processes and mathematics achievement of the participants, the researcher has constructed a modular mathematics enhancement program framework as a guide to researchers, and other interested parties in the planning, designing, redesigning and implementing modular mathematics enhancement programs grounded on brain dominance to hone and enhance thinking processes such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and thereby, improve mathematics achievement.

Student Interest and Engagement in Mathematics After the First Year of Secondary Education

The end of first year in secondary mathematics education is an important yet neglected milestone in the literature. It represents a crucial period in a students’ mathematical lifetime when they have negotiated the physical, academic and emotional bridges between primary and secondary education, bridges which have been shown to impact considerably on students’ performance and attitudes to mathematics. This study, which investigated students’ motivation in mathematics and their willingness to engage in it including attitudes, emotions and self-related beliefs at the end of students’ first year of secondary education in Ireland, formed part of a larger study on student transition in mathematics from primary to secondary education in Ireland. It is the first study of its kind since the introduction of a new mathematics curriculum in Ireland in 2010. Using a large sample of 304 students, the data was analyzed for all students and also for students grouped by gender. The results of this study show high levels of student engagement, motivation and positive self-belief in mathematics, despite recorded declines in mathematical performance after a full year’s instruction. This study also highlights a gender disparity in mathematics self-beliefs, particularly in relation to self-efficacy, self-concept, and anxiety.

Self-Regulated Online Learning and Students’ Attitude as Predictors of Skill Proficiency Development in Mathematics

This study aimed to determine if self-regulated online learning and student’s attitude were predictors of skill proficiency development in Mathematics. 200 GE 4 students of UM North Campuses were the respondents of this research. The statistical tools used were Mean, Pearson-r, and Regression Analysis. Quantitative non-experimental research utilizing correlational technique with regression analysis was the research design of this paper. Results revealed high self-regulated online learning among GE 4 students in terms of metacognitive skill, time management, environmental structuring, persistence, and help seeking was high. The level of students’ attitude towards learning Mathematics yielded a descriptive equivalent of high confidence in Mathematics, the importance of Mathematics, and engagement in Mathematics. The level of skill proficiency development of the students in Mathematics yielded a high-level result in terms of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and productive disposition. There was a positive significant relationship between self-regulated online learning and students’ attitude to skill proficiency development in Mathematics. However, between the two independent variables, students’ attitude was the only predictor of skill proficiency development in Mathematics.

Characterising a Representation Construction Pedagogy for Integrating Science and Mathematics in the Primary School

Growing research evidence indicates student learning gains from guided representation construction/invention in school science and mathematics. In this inquiry approach, students address challenges around what features of a phenomenon/problem to attend to, what data to collect, how and why, and make collective judgments about multimodal accounts of phenomena. However, researchers to date have tended to focus on student learning rather than on the teacher’s role in guiding various phases of inquiry. In this paper we report on (a) analysis of Grade 1 students’ engagement in interdisciplinary mathematics and science inquiry practices in a classroom sequence in ecology; (b) the teacher’s role in guiding such inquiry; and (c) interpretation of these practices in terms of support of student transduction (connecting and remaking meanings across representations in different modes). Data from our study included video capture of two case study teachers’ guidance of tasks and classroom discussion and student artefacts. We examine the classroom processes through which the teachers used students’ invention and revision of data displays to teach the concepts of living things, diversity, distribution and adaptive features related to habitat in science. Mathematical processes included constructing and interpreting mapping, measurement and data modelling, sampling and using a scale. The analysis offers fresh insights into how teachers support student learning in these two subjects, through discrete stages of orienting, representation challenge, building consensus and applying and extending representational systems.

THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF TEACHERS' INNOVATIVE WORK BEHAVIOR ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER ENGAGEMENT AND STUDENTS' LEARNING OUTCOMES IN MATHEMATICS

The study was conducted to determine whether teachers' innovative work behavior is mediating the relationship between teacher engagement and students' learning outcomes in mathematics. The study utilized a quantitative, non-experimental design using the correlational research method. The respondents were 288 grade ten students in four different schools in the division of Tagum City. A simple random sampling was used to identify the respondents. Two sets of research instruments were used in this study, and the Statistics tools applied were mean Pearson r and regression analysis. Findings showed that teacher engagement was highly extensive while the level of students' learning outcomes was very satisfactory. Moreover, the level of teachers' innovative work behavior was high. Results also revealed no significant relationship between teacher engagement and students' learning outcomes. There was no significant relationship between the teacher's innovative work behavior and students' learning outcomes. However, there was a significant relationship between teacher engagement and innovative work behavior. Lastly, there is no significant mediation takes place in the model. It does not claim further that teachers' innovative work behavior influence students' learning outcome in mathematics. It is recommended that further researchers exploring the mediating effect of teachers' innovative work behavior on the relationship between teacher engagement, and students' learning outcomes be conducted to substantiate the findings. KEYWORD: Education, Teachers' Innovative Work Behavior, Teacher Engagement, Students' Learning Outcomes in Mathematics, Teachers, Students, Mediation Analysis, Sobel's z-test, Davao del Norte.

Shaping science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum in Australian schools: An ecological systems analysis

Improving young people’s engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is being promoted worldwide as a means of addressing projected shortfalls in expertise needed to further nations’ economic, social and environmental goals. Responding to this, schools are reforming traditional discipline-based curricula into interdisciplinary approaches based on problem and project-based designs, to make STEM learning more relevant and meaningful for students. This study drew on a dataset of 449 Australian principal and teacher interviews, to identify factors influencing STEM curriculum in their schools. It utilised Ecological Systems Theory to build understanding relating to the influence of activities and outputs originating at macro, exo and meso system levels, on STEM curriculum and practices in classrooms. Results demonstrated how many innovative schools were able to successfully leverage community, business and national resources to enhance their STEM curriculum, while others struggled due to limitations imposed by geographic or socio-economic factors, or limited access to resources, expertise or advice. Central to achieving this was the powerful influence of principals’ and teachers’ proximal processes and developmental assets in establishing effective and engaging interdisciplinary STEM curricula, despite constraints imposed by, at best, ambiguous national and state curriculum and policies, rigid assessment regimes and compliance-focused reporting requirements.

Relationships Between Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, Regulations, and Behavioral Engagement in Mathematics.

Behavioral engagement is a key determinant of students’ learning. Hence, knowledge about mechanisms affecting engagement is crucial for educators and stakeholders. Self-determination theory (SDT) offers a framework to understand one of these mechanisms. However, extant studies mostly consider only parts of SDT’s theoretical paths from basic psychological need satisfaction via regulations to student engagement. Studies that investigate the full model are rare, especially in mathematics, and results are inconclusive. Moreover, constructs are often merged in ways that may preclude detailed understanding. In this study, we used structural equation modeling to test several hypothesized paths between the individual variables that make up higher-order constructs of need satisfaction, regulations, and behavioral engagement. Satisfaction of the need for competence had a dominating effect on engagement, both directly and via identified regulation. Similarly, satisfaction of the need for relatedness predicted identified regulation, that in turn predicted engagement. Satisfaction of the need for autonomy predicted intrinsic regulation as expected but, in contrast to theory, was also positively associated with controlled motivation (external and introjected regulation). Neither intrinsic nor controlled regulation predicted engagement. Theoretical and method-related reasons for this unexpected pattern are discussed, as well as implications for research and teaching.

Instructional engagement and student learning outcomes: Direct and indirect effects based on country-specific contingencies

This paper aims to investigate if and how students’ engagement in mathematics affect their learning outcomes. Specifically, it searches for direct and/or indirect effects of instructional engagement on cognitive and affective learning outcomes in mathematics. Separate multilevel analyses were employed for each European country that participated in TIMSS 2015 cycle. Initially, the direct effect of instructional engagement on both math achievement and students’ attitudes towards learning mathematics was examined. A direct effect of instructional engagement on attitudes towards learning mathematics was identified. Then, the indirect effect of instructional engagement on math achievement via the students’ attitudes towards learning mathematics was investigated. In eight countries, indirect effects of instructional engagement on cognitive outcomes were identified. Implications of findings for research, policy, and practice are drawn.

Motivacija za učenje matematike kod budućih učitelja razredne nastave

The aim of the study was to explore pre-service primary school teachers' motivational beliefs about mathematics in the light of the expectancy-value theory. We wanted to find out to what extent the motivational beliefs of pre-service teachers are related to their previous experiences in mathematics and to their engagement in learning mathematics and mathematics anxiety. The participants were 237 pre-service primary school teachers in their first year of study. They completed a mathematics exam and a questionnaire on their motivational beliefs (self-efficacy and subjective value), previous experiences in mathematics (level of high school math program, mathematics competencies, epistemic beliefs and achievement goals during high school), engagement and mathematics anxiety. The results of hierarchical regression analyses show that previous experiences with mathematics are important predictors of self-efficacy and subjective value. Furthermore, motivational beliefs are significant predictors of the pre-service teachers' engagement in learning mathematics and mathematics anxiety, along with their previous experiences with mathematics. The results are in line with the expectancy- -value theory and indicate that it is important to foster the development of adaptive beliefs about mathematics during the initial education of pre-service teachers.

Engagement, achievement, and teacher classroom practices in mathematics: Insights from TIMSS 2011 and PISA 2012

This article examines a multidimensional conceptualization of engagement and how it is related to achievement outcomes and teacher classroom practices in mathematics (including structure, support, and challenge). It draws insights from existing literature on engagement and other related research areas, including motivation and teaching effectiveness, and conducts empirical investigations using international large-scale survey and assessment data in four education systems (i.e., Singapore, Finland, Australia, and Romania) that have distinct cultural and social backgrounds and achieve at varying levels on international assessments. Confirmatory factor analysis results validate engagement as a multidimensional construct across contexts. Path analysis results reveal different patterns in the relations among engagement, achievement, and teacher classroom practices. In some contexts, relations between teacher practices and engagement or achievement vary as a function of student or teacher report. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Middle School Students’ Engagement in Mathematics and Learning Approaches: Structural Equation Modelling

This study aims to investigate the effects of middle school students’ learning approaches and their attitudes towards mathematics on their engagement in mathematics course. The research cross-sectional survey design was used in the quantitative research model. The research was conducted with the participation of 5th-8th graders who attended schools located in a city in the Central Anatolian region of Turkey. Thus, 383 students in total, 209 of whom were female and 174 of whom were male, were included in the research. Three different data collection instruments were used in the study: student engagement in mathematics scale, approaches to learning mathematics scale, and scale for assessing attitudes towards mathematics in secondary education. The data were analyzed on structural equation modelling. As a result, significant correlations were found between participants’ engagement in mathematics course and their learning approaches while no significant differences were found between their engagement in mathematics and their attitudes towards the course.

Engaging mathematics student-teachers in an Open Distance e-learning context

Isolation, lack of connection and/or belonging, difficulty maintaining engagement and motivation for learning are common complaints for students separated from teaching and support staff in distance education. Using a mixed-methods approach, this article utilises dimensions of student engagement: cognitive, emotional and social behaviour to argue on student-teachers’ engagement in mathematics learning for teaching in the Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL) context. A survey was administered to 654 students in an institution registered for Postgraduate Certificate in Education mathematics didactics course. Furthermore, five of the students were interviewed using emails and audio-recorded telephone calls. Findings reveal that student-teachers sometimes feel hopeless due to connectivity and data issues, which then impacts their time to engage with mathematics content. They also revealed that when they engage in discussion forums, they enjoy learning mathematics with their peers. It was also revealed that feedback on their assignments guides them on the correctness of their solutions as they otherwise would not have been able to do this on their own. It is recommended that further work be done to establish how cognitive engagement with mathematics can be positively impacted in an ODeL context.

Effects of Collaborative Digital Gameplay on Students' Three Dimensions of Engagement in Mathematics

This study attempts to provide an in-depth understanding of the influence of collaborative digital gameplay on students’ behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement in mathematics. This mixed-method study used pre- (N = 45) and post-test (N = 43) engagement surveys and photo-elicitation interviews (N = 6) to investigate how a six-day experiment involving collaborative digital gameplay on Wuzzit Trouble affects students’ engagement in mathematics. The quantitative results showed collaborative digital gameplay did not elicit a significant increase in students’ engagement in mathematics from pre-test to post-test. Moreover, the qualitative results of analyzing the measurement of three-dimensional engagement showed four factors – learning achievement, teacher support, peer collaboration and task characteristics – were associated with students’ engagement in a collaborative digital gameplay classroom. The findings suggest the classroom context plays an important role in three-dimensional engagement, which efficiently improve students’ conceptual understanding and arithmetic skills.

Investigating the importance of girls’ mathematical identity within United States STEM programmes: a systematic review

We conducted a systematic review to generate a comprehensive understanding of cisgendered girls’ mathematical identity within the United States to better understand: (a) how mathematical identity is associated with girls’ participation, engagement, and achievement in mathematics; (b) the factors related to girls’ mathematical identity; and (c) strategies for developing strong mathematical identities within girls. We identified 76 articles that examined mathematical identity in young girls and women. Our review suggests that positive girls’ mathematical identity was consistently linked with increased performance, participation and persistence in mathematics. Factors and strategies affecting girls’ mathematical identity included the role of parental attitudes and beliefs; societal and cultural influences; and the intersections of sex and race. Practical implications for researchers and practitioners are also discussed.

Doing the math together: coaches’ professional learning through engagement in mathematics

Doing the math together: coaches’ professional learning through engagement in mathematics