Increasing students’ motivational efforts in mathematics

What motivation in mathematics means  Motivated students: –have positive attitudes – find mathematics interesting, enjoyable, do-able and relevant –believe that making an effort will lead to success –want to learn more and do well in attainment tests –show effort and perseverance –seek out new challenges

What helps motivate students to put effort into learning mathematics?  Two broad approaches worked: –helping students to see themselves as mathematicians –use of innovative strategies, including ICT

Seeing themselves as mathematicians – the most important factor  Believing they were poor mathematicians meant students saw mathematics as: –a subject only ‘clever people’ do well in –boring and irrelevant –not worth making an effort for

Helping learners develop a positive identity so that they worked harder  Teachers needed to create: –a supportive classroom climate –challenging and enjoyable activities –opportunities for students to collaborate –deep understanding

Making use of ICT  ICT was motivating in two distinct ways: –it made lessons enjoyable – which was important –it enhanced deeper understanding of mathematics – which was crucial

Other effective ‘innovative’ approaches  A range of other strategies helped too: –cognitive acceleration in mathematics education (CAME) or CAME-type lessons –oral/mental starters and whole-class interactive teaching –assessment for learning practices

The importance of teachers’ professional development  For innovative approaches to be effective teachers needed to: –have a good understanding of how an innovation could be effective –work together and with external specialists to explore and evaluate the innovations together

What about setting?  The study highlighted the damaging effect on students’ motivation of being in the wrong set: –in high sets the work could be too difficult for some students, undermining their self-confidence –in too low a set the work could lack challenge

Who were the children in the study?  Students aged years in mainstream classes in England

How was the information gathered?  The researchers: –identified a question as a focus –searched for relevant studies –screened the studies according to inclusion and exclusion criteria –analyses the strength of the research design of the included studies –synthesised the findings of the final selection of 25 studies into a report

How can teachers use the evidence in this study?  The key ways of enhancing students’ motivation were through helping students see themselves as mathematicians and using innovative approaches  Could you help students see themselves as mathematicians e.g. by asking them to record all the different occasions in which they and their families use calculations in a week?  Could you develop new ways to use ICT to deepen students’ understanding, e.g. dynamic software that illustrates how changing coefficients alters the graphs of functions?

How can school leaders use the evidence in this study?  The review highlighted the importance of teachers working together and with the support of specialists to develop innovative practice  How can you increase mathematics teachers’ opportunities to work collaboratively to develop new teaching approaches, such as using ICT to deepen pupils’ understanding?  How could you support colleagues who want to evaluate the impact of innovative strategies on their students’ motivational effort?

Follow-up reading  Study reference: Kyriacou, C., & Goulding, M., (2006) A systematic review of strategies to raise pupils’ motivational effort in Key Stage 4 mathematics. EPPI-Centre Social Science Research Unit, London: Institute of Education  Summary available at: thematics/Raisingmathsmotivation/ thematics/Raisingmathsmotivation/ thematics/Raisingmathsmotivation/

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