Raising student engagement in junior secondary mathematics

Abstract

This small-scale study with junior secondary students took place at one of the ten percent of schools in New Zealand with the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic communities. The study compared student engagement when learning was done both collaboratively and independently in a digital mathematics class with particular emphasis given to the Number strand of the New Zealand curriculum. Nine year nine students from one class, ranging in age from thirteen and fourteen years of age, participated in the research during their first year of secondary school. Students with a range of abilities and interests in mathematics had been randomly selected from a convenience sampling frame of twenty-one students with the sole research focus being on engagement, meaning academic achievement data was neither gathered nor discussed. The concept of students inquiring into their learning and creating personalised study notes was in alignment with constructivist learning theory as it allowed students to become more active, creative and self-regulated in their learning. A methodological insider approach, in conjunction with a mixed methods case study in a single subject design, provided a platform for pre and post-engagement data to be gathered and analysed. Data were analysed using ttests and subsequently compared through triangulation to determine the effect of collaborative learning on engagement. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected over a four week period during timetabled mathematics periods, using a researcher-designed questionnaire in the form of an online Google form which students completed daily, pre and post lesson. The researcher hypothesised that collaboration would have a positive effect on student engagement as opposed to learning independently. It was noted that raw independent post-engagement data covered the entire engagement scale from 1 (extremely low) to 7 (extremely high) compared to raw collaborative post-engagement data which ranged from 4 (average) to 7 (extremely high). While it could be suggested that engagement would be inevitable if the students found the tasks engaging, irrespective of whether they were completed independently or collaboratively, it was evident that collaborative learning opportunities showed higher levels of student engagement compared to engagement levels when learning was done independently. The hypothesis was correct as post-engagement data between the two populations proved to be statistically significantly different.