So Dr. McCoy has helped facilitate the transition from a quantitative to a qualitative study with her suggestions on last week’s blog. Pertinent to the topic of real life applications of mathematics influencing student’s comprehension and motivation, she suggested that I have the teachers keep a log or share their lesson plans for a few weeks straight and then examine the data to see how often they incorporate real life applications. She also suggested surveying and interviewing students and teachers to find out how well they are able to apply mathematical concepts to practical tasks. I appreciate all of these suggestions. I am a little hesitant about asking teachers to keep a log as I know that teachers already have a lot on their plate and will probably not see the benefit to be gained of taking the time to keep a log. I do like the idea of having them share their lesson plans since they have to write lesson plans regardless of participation in the research study. Interviewing the teachers and students to test their ability to apply math would yield very interesting results especially seeing how well teachers are able to apply math.
The only part missing from the study is examination on how incorporation of real life problems in math affects the students. Does it have a solid impact (I avoided using the word significant) on their understanding of mathematical concepts and theories? Does it affect their willingness and desire to learn math and be in a math classroom? These constructs are difficult to assess and I welcome any suggestions.
1 comment:
Sarah, I see that someone has posted the directions for uploading a picture. I suspect next week's blog will be a photo show!! I love it!!
You have done some more excellent thinking about your potential topic. I think you might be surprised at how many experienced teachers do not write lesson plans. That might not be a good data source. But you could interview teachers and get a sense of how they incorporate real life situations.
You could also construct a good interview for students where you ask them the questions/constructs. It might be as simple as just asking them what you want to know.
Do you prefer math problems or word problems? Why? (You might uncover some reading problems or who knows what.) If you had a problem about something interesting to you (maybe sports) would you be likely to work harder to learn that material? Etc. Construction of the interview would be really key.
This makes it motivation again, but from the students' perspective. That could be very interesting.
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