Negative Numbers:

The affective domain and mathematics in post 16 education

Pete Jarrett Truro and Penwith College petej@truro-penwith.ac.uk

Sometimes I think it would be nice to borrow somebody elses head for a bit, just so I can explain. (Beth)

..affect is among the strongest driving forces behind human endeavours and action, it can be attributed a central role in learning, and can be seen as influencing achievement in a lasting manner (Buff et al. 2011)

Student attitudes, such as confidence with or anxiety towards mathematics, play a mediating role with respect to some teaching and learning strategies, and maintain their strong association with student performance even after adjusting for these strategies. (PISA, 2010)

Much human endeavour, which is purposive, is regulated by forethought embodying cognised goals. Personal goal setting is influenced by self-appraisal of capabilities. (Bandura, 1993)

10 9 8

7
6

5 4
3

2 1
0 L2 L3 L2

Item Answer quick Explain solution Sit test Learn maths skill Expectations

Cronbachs Value .936 .935 .937 .950 .942

Enjoy lesson
Maths Uni Course

.944
.944

Item Sale percent Budget Recipe ratio Grid reference Bank manager
Learn plumb sink Darts score Buy wallpaper

Cronbachs Value .853 .875 .849 .862 .865

.886 .871 .844

Item

Cronbachs Value

Pythagoras

.792

Calculator

.867

Times Tables

.815

Divide

.775

Convert measures

.842

Rotated Component Matrixa Component

1
SalePercent Budget Pythagoras .795

2
.594 .714

RecipeRatio
Calculator TimesTables AnswerQuick GridReference .591 .818

.538
.698 .522

.504

.584

ExplainSolution
SitTest Divide ConvertMeasures BankManager LearnMathsSkill LearnPlumbSink

.829
.818 .583 .534 .638 .592 .594 .846

Expectations
EnjoyLesson DartsScore MathsUniCourse BuyWallpaper

.796
.854 .711 .804

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a. Rotation converged in 5 iterations.

The four rules (Chinn, 2004): Empathetic classroom management which implies an active awareness and consequent adjustment to the learning strengths, attitudes and difficulties of pupils.

The word basic is often applied to the everyday arithmetic of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, and percentages. There is a tendency for those that can do to use the word in a dismissive or belittling fashion with those who cant do (Klinger, 2011)

Responsive flexibility allows the teacher to have a repertoire of resources and strategies which respond to the individual (and often changing) needs of the pupil.

Negative attitudes toward math in class caused a lot of disruption and impeded learning. - Teachers never really made the value and importance of maths clear; so people didn't try as hard.

Factors that encourage adult participation Motivation to succeed Not caring about classmates perceptions Personal acquaintance with classmates

Factors that inhibit adult participation Shyness Fearing classmates judgements Social discomfort

(Tennant, 2012)

Developmental methods are methods that address the remedial need whilst developing mathematical skills and concepts.

Organised knowledge enables us to solve original problems and remember more relevant information than if we only memorised mathematical facts or procedures (Saenz, 2009)

Effective communication which infers an awareness of thinking and learning style and an awareness of limitations such as language skills, poor short term memory and slower speeds of working.

It is remarkable that cognitive information-processing deficits arising from math anxiety can be traced to brain regions and circuits that have been consistently implicated in specific phobias and generalized anxiety disorders in adults (Young et al, 2012)

Assessors adequately supporting those candidates with maths learning difficulties in order to ensure equality of access to examinations needs to be addressed through the professional associations such as BDA, Dyslexia Action and PATOSS. The issue is one of educating professionals so that they are aware of the needs of such students. Nick Lait, JCQ.