We are currently investigating student attitudes towards mathematics and are particularly interested in innovative strategies for collecting data from young students (5-8 yearsage bracket). Have you come across any technologies which might be useful in this regard.?Cheers, Kevin.
In my PhD research I used an online questionnaire for measuring attitude towards mathematics (liking/enjoyment) for children aged 7-10. We used a smiley scale, and questions were spoken aloud by the computer, so no reading was necessary. The questionnaire was suitable for the age group and I think it can also be used for younger children. See chapter 6 of my thesis:
Thesis Using mini-games for learning multiplication and division: A...
Thanks Vandana and Marjoke.
Marjoke - I will definitely have a look at the online questionnaire as this will add to the data that we are able to collect via the video diaries we are currently using.
Regards, Kevin
Perhaps using some form of dynamic assessment, such as talking with students while they are completing a mathematics task.
Thanks John,
Do you have an example of some of the questions you might have asked students in any dynamic assessment work you have done with students regarding their attitude towards mathematics.
Cheers, Kevin
I found this research in which the researchers used two questionnaires:"In order to measure their attitudes, children completed the Mathematics Attitudes and Anxiety Questionnaire [20, 30]. The attitude questionnaire consists of 28 questions which focused on 7 areas of maths: maths in general, written sums, mental sums, easy maths, difficult maths, maths tests, and understanding the teacher. For each item, children were asked about their Self-rating (“How good are you?”) on a scale consisting of ticks and crosses (“very good” to “very bad”); Liking for the items (“How much do you like it?”) on a scale consisting of sweets and wasps (“like very much” to “hate very much”); Anxiety about them (“How worried would you feel?”) on a scale of facial expressions based on Roger Hargreaves’ “Mr. Men” picture-book characters Mr. Happy and Mr. Worry (“very relaxed” to “very worried”); Unhappiness at poor performance (“How unhappy would you feel if you did badly?”) on a scale consisting of faces with frowning or happy faces (“very unhappy” to “very happy”). Possible rating scores for each item ranged from 1 to 5, so the total possible scores on each scale ranged from 7 to 35. Scores were calculated so that a higher score represented a more positive attitude. Thus, the Anxiety and Unhappiness scores represent relative freedom from Anxiety and Unhappiness. In places where there may be ambiguity, the paper will refer to “(Non-)Anxiety” and “(Non-)Unhappiness”. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdr/2012/124939/
Hi Zoi, Thanks for the information about the attitude scales. I will look this up and incorporate this into my research. Cheers, Kevin.
Dear Kevin,
I have devoted my research in M.E. to the study of students attitude towards mathematics and my opinion is that narrative and qualitative methods are needed. Me and Zan have underlined the limits of Likert's scale and questionnaires in the study of affective factors. If you are interested you can find some of our paper about attitude in my research gate profile (in particular we have described the cosntruct "students attitude towards mathematics" for the recent Encyclopedia of M.E. published by Springer.
Keep me updated about your research,
best
Pietro
Hi Pietro,
I agree that narrative and qualitative methods are needed - I will certainly read your papers for further information.
Regards, Kevin.
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Statistical Techniques
- Meta-Analysis