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theses

Learning mathematics often evokes powerful affective reactions including uncertainty, frustration, or anxiety as well as satisfaction, joy and elation. Such emotions may contribute to or impede students’ “in the moment” engagement as well as their longer-term motivation to learn mathematics. Research suggests that motivation and engagement are malleable constructs influenced by the contexts in which learning takes place. The language and actions which teachers use when interacting with their students may contribute to the development of learning environments that foster (or inhibit) student motivation and mathematical engagement. This study examines classroom videotapes that capture “in the moment” mathematical interactions between two urban middle school teachers and their students. It describes the teachers’ reflections on their own affect, and their explanations of their rationales for affective and instructional decisions, as reported during videotaped retrospective stimulated recall interviews. Three research questions are addressed: 1.) During the teacher/student mathematical interaction episodes that were analyzed, what affective language and/or actions do these two urban mathematics teachers use to foster or support (or possibly discourage or impede) students’ engagement with conceptually challenging mathematics, as their students work in small groups? 2.) What can be inferred about the students’ engagement with the mathematics immediately subsequent to the identified teacher/student mathematical interaction episodes? 3.) In retrospective stimulated recall interviews, what rationale do these two teachers provide for their own affective language and/or actions when interacting with students during key affective events? To answer these questions, fifty-seven videotaped teacher/student mathematical interaction episodes that were recorded during a span of eight days of classroom periods (four days per teacher) are analyzed. From the coded video data, five themes regarding the teachers’ affective language and actions emerge and are discussed: (1) Teacher interest in students’ mathematical engagement, reasoning and representation, (2) Teacher validation of student mathematical reasoning, (3) Teacher support of student autonomy, (4) Teacher encouragement of discourse and (5) Teacher promotion of respect. This study contributes to an emerging discussion about the contextual factors contributing to student engagement in mathematics classrooms. The study has implications for teacher education and teacher professional development, as teachers apply specific affective strategies to promote student engagement with mathematics. It also has implications for education researchers investigating specific teaching strategies that promote student mathematical engagement. Limitations include the small sample of teachers, the qualitative nature of the analysis, and the reliability of inferences drawn from videotaped data.

ETD_4575

Ed.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Pamela C. Brett

doi:10.7282/T3BK1996

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.