E-Book Overview
This book examines the beliefs, attitudes, values and emotions of students in Years 5 to 8 (aged 10 to 14 years) about mathematics and mathematics education. Fundamentally, this book focuses on the development of affective views and responses towards mathematics and mathematics learning. Furthermore, it seems that students develop their more negative views of mathematics during the middle school years (Years 5 to 8), and so here we concentrate on students in this critical period. The book is based on a number of empirical studies, including an enquiry undertaken with 45 children in Years 5 and 6 in one school; a large-scale quantitative study undertaken with students from a range of schools across diverse communities in New Zealand; and two related small-scale studies with junior secondary students in Australia. This book brings substantial, empirically-based evidence to the widely held perception that many students have negative views of mathematics, and these affective responses develop during the middle years of school. The data for this book were collected with school students, and students who were actually engaged in learning mathematics in their crucial middle school years. The findings reported and discussed here are relevant for researchers and mathematics educators, policy makers and curriculum developers, and teachers and school principals engaged in the teaching of mathematics.
E-Book Content
Peter Grootenboer · Margaret Marshman Mathematics, Affect and Learning Middle School Students’ Beliefs and Attitudes About Mathematics Education Mathematics, Affect and Learning Peter Grootenboer Margaret Marshman • Mathematics, Affect and Learning Middle School Students’ Beliefs and Attitudes About Mathematics Education 123 Margaret Marshman University of the Sunshine Coast Sunshine Coast, QLD Australia Peter Grootenboer Griffith University Gold Coast Campus, QLD Australia ISBN 978-981-287-678-2 DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-679-9 ISBN 978-981-287-679-9 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2015946086 Springer Singapore Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer Science+Business Media Singapore Pte Ltd. is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Peter would like to dedicate this book to Jake, Danneke, and Talitha. Margaret would like to dedicate this book to Chaedyn and Cahlia—future middle years mathematics students. Preface For many years mathematics has been seen as a dull and boring subject that has little relevance to real life, and seemingly these views develop at school. This book focuses on the beliefs, attitudes, valu