Skip to main content

Improving Mathematics: Surveying Students Attitudes




Our Action research has been progressing this year despite the many interruptions this year has provided. Online learning proved to be a challenge but has provided many learning opportunities for our learning community.

I have become a data nerd this year and this seemed the perfect opportunity to dig a little deeper into understanding how data helps to understand my students. I recently asked my students to complete this data survey so that I can present the results to our staff in the next few weeks.

The survey was one that I have adapted from Teacher's Pay Teachers. It had some good questions for students about their general attitudes to Mathematics. I added questions about how game-based learning and how they feel that games help them to learn Math concepts and develop their skills.

The survey has helped to understand how my students feel about Mathematics and particularly using games in the classroom. I found it encouraging that most found that games had a beneficial effect on their learning. 

It was encouraging to see that most of their attitudes to Mathematics were positive and that they found it engaging. The other key takeaways from the survey were:

  • that they feel that there is more than one way to solve problems
  • they can make mistakes in  order to learn
  • the students need explicit teaching to help them learn. 
  • it bothers them when they get the wrong answer
  • they like to figure things out on their own
  • They can learn from others
  • using hands-on materials helps them learn better. 
It was such a valuable survey and feel that this has informed the next part of the year to try some different strategies out for teaching mathematics. I will follow this survey up at the end of the year with a reflection about how they have gone with Mathematics throughout this year to see if the results have improved or have remained consistent. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remote Learning: What I have learned

Launching into Remote Learning was an abrupt and unexpected turn of events for all in education. The learning curve has been steep and quite challenging, requiring flexibility and adaptability to cope with the rapid pace of events as they have unfolded through the past weeks. Remote learning has meant that teachers have had to find new ways to connect with their students in a way that is virtual. The challenge is still to provide lessons that are engaging and providing quality learning, while the students are in their own homes. Students themselves are grappling with understanding this new context for learning. Parents are having to determine the best routines for their child's education. It has been a daunting situation for many. The platform that our school uses for Kindergarten to Year 4 is Seesaw. This platform is easy to use for younger students providing a range of tools that students can easily access. What I have learned through this has been to develop skills that w
Post a Comment
Read more

Launching Game-Based Learning

As a teacher, the challenge is how to make learning accessible, engaging and to make it memorable for our students. It is a quest for every teacher to consider the ways that our lessons will be structured to meet the needs of our students and make sure that it moves their learning forward. This year as part of our Professional Development at my school, we are engaged in an Action Research Inquiry Learning Plan. The Action research model uses the spirals of inquiry to determine the needs of our learners and researching further into one area of interest. John Spencer explains it very well in this video: What is Game-Based Learning?  The area that I have chosen will be centred around game-based learning. Game-based learning borrows ideas and principles of competition and engagement to real-life situations. While students play they engage in concepts and feedback that are designed with an educational endpoint ( Game-based Learning definition, Annie Pho and Amanda Dinscore 201
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting Organised

In the past year I have found that I have been moving towards a more paper free way of of working, relying more on the files on my laptop and iPad. The main reason is very practical: I lose pieces of paper. I put down the page that I need to use and its not to be found again until 6 months later under the cupboard next to the broken pens and old rubber, gathering dust. My intention is to be completely organised but reality dictates the success of this at times: I can be frustratingly disorganised. Putting that aside, its time to start again! With the new year having started, comes a sense of new possibilities and fresh starts. It is also a time to consider the plans for the coming year: What will I do? Where will I head to? What worked well? My goal for this year is to be more organised regarding my program, lesson plans and student files. It has been a  bit haphazard up until now. Evernote  is an online file system, where documents, notes, pictures, sound files can be recorded a
Post a Comment
Read more