Summary on the article 1

Learning environment, attitudes and conceptual development associated with innovative strategies in middle-school mathematics by Philip I. Ogbuehi and Barry J. Fraser

The study was done in California, which researched on the effectiveness of applying innovative teaching strategies to enhance the classroom environment, students’ attitudes and conceptual development to Linear Equations in Mathematics. Personally, I agreed with the author that students tend to develop disinterest in Algebra and lose focus in Mathematics class especially when they find difficulties in grasping and understanding the concept and not knowing how and when to apply the learnt concept in daily life. Hence, they find it boring and non-meaningful.

There were mainly 101 student participants who were divided into two groups i.e. the experimental group which went through the innovative teaching strategies (i.e. more of student-centered learning), and the control group which went through the traditional teaching method (i.e. more of teacher-centered learning). In this study, graphical approach was used to teach Linear Equations where visual representation can help students to better visualize and understand the concept. Quantitative data collection was carried out using the instruments: Constructivist Classroom Learning Environment Survey (CLES), What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC), and Test of Mathematics Related Attitudes (TOMRA). Some qualitative data collection was also done but not discussed in the article. Lastly, an achievement pretest and posttest were carried out to further evaluate the effectiveness of the innovative and traditional teaching strategies.

All the three instruments have been validated either in USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, and /or Korea, etc. The data obtained also showed strong support towards the factorial validity of the modified versions of the instruments. The results showed that the experimental group experienced higher and more favorable pretest-posttest changes than the control group in terms of their classroom environment perceptions i.e. Task Orientation, attitudes to mathematics i.e. Normality of Mathematicians, Enjoyment of Mathematics, and achievement. Simple correlation for class means was very significant for Personal Relevance, Shared Control, Involvement and Task Orientation for Enjoyment of Mathematics. Students generally enjoyed their classes when they can control and get involved in the class.

In conclusion, this study has provided meaningful data and results to the teachers who can now further improve and create a learning environment that can increase the student enjoyment of the subject matter through focusing on personal relevance, student control, involvement and task orientation. However, the limitation of this study was that the sample size was relatively small, and the selected student participants were not diverse and representative of the full range of schools and students in California.