| Description |
This study investigates student-generated ideas about mathematics, focusing specifically on students' definitions of math and their notions of math's utility. The study is designed to explore these concepts concurrently through two research questions: (1) How do middle school students define mathematics? (2) How do those definitions connect with or relate to their ideas of math utility? Student-generated ideas are central to this exploration because they offer more insight into what students are learning and how they are motivated to learn (Canning & Harackiewicz, 2015; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; Johansson & Sumpter, 2020). I focus on middle-school students as they are at a critical period in their educational careers and perceptions of math (Priniski & Thoman, 2020). Students participated in semi-structured interviews, and select questions were chosen for analysis. Findings reveal that most students primarily thought about math content over math processes when offering ideas about defining math. Additionally, there were connections between which areas of math were mentioned in connection with which domains of utility. Among content areas defined by the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), Numbers & Operations and Measurement were most frequently connected to Daily Activities. Among math processes defined by the NCTM, Problem Solving and Connections were most frequently connected to Future Job/Career. However, there was not a connection between the breadth of a student's math definitions and the breadth of their notions of math's utility. These findings have implications for what kinds of instructional decisions teachers make in their classrooms, and how they try to connect math content and processes to their students' personal lives. |
