Affective change in adult students in second chance mathematics courses : three different teaching approaches

Abstract

A case study approach was used to explore second-chance mathematics through two larger courses and one individual study program. A different teaching approach, by committed experienced teachers, was used in each course. In evaluating their effectiveness, I focused on affective change in the students, relating this to their achievement. This study contributes to research on understanding good teaching of mathematics to adults. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected over several years. Methods included: a questionnaire (including mathematics attitude and belief scales as well as demographic and open questions); interviews with students to gather more affective data and explore their reactions to the course approach; and the individual supervised study course was audio-taped for six months. Teachers of the larger courses were also interviewed about their goals for, and experiences with, the students. These multiple strands of evidence provide a complex overall picture of three, largely successful, teaching approaches. Each measure had its own contribution to make, and taken together they illuminated the ways in which affective change was related to ackevement in the three contexts. The higher achieving groups in each of the two larger courses entered the courses with more positive attitudes and beliefs than the lower achieving groups and subsequent affective changes reinforced these differences. The lower achieving groups completed the courses affectively worse off than when they started, Students' reactions to these approaches were compared and found to reflect the nature of the approach. In addition to this finding, successhl students' beliefs about mathematics changed in two of the courses. In the one-to-one course the teacher focused initially on understanding the students' fear of mathematics and early mathematical experiences. The student-focused teaching approach trusted and encouraged the growth of ths student's mathematical thinking. Six months later the student felt empowered and had come to believe that mathematics as a creative and enjoyable process of discovering patterns. The second course focused on the mathematization of realistic situations. Successful students came to regard mathematics as useful, interesting, relating to real life. Successful students in the third course appreciated the carefully structured reintroduction to mathematics and were pleased they could finally do the mathematics they hadn't been able to understand at high school.