Contextual Research-Empirical: Examining Affective and Cognitive Engagement in the Middle School Mathematics Classroom

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This 3-year research project will undertake two major tasks. The Task 1 will be to develop and refine a theoretical framework and self-report instrument for measuring affective engagement in the mathematics classroom. Instrumentation and measurement work will involve the establishment of the psychometric properties of the instrument, primarily its construct validity. Task 2 will examine how engagement and learning in a mathematical activity may be malleable depending upon the characteristics of the activity, qualities of the learning environment, and students' prior attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge. To that end, a quantitative empirical study will be conducted and data will be analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The research questions are as follows: How is student engagement in a mathematical activity differentially evoked depending upon (1) characteristics of the activity itself, (2) qualities of the learning environment, and (3) students' prior attitudes and beliefs? What are the effects on engagement of students? prior knowledge and the interactions among these factors? How does a student's engagement in a mathematical activity relate to the mathematics she or he learns? This research will yield a validated instrument that can be used by researchers and practitioners to measure key aspects of student engagement situated within the mathematics classroom. The reserach results will advance theory about the antecedents of student engagement, with an emphasis on examining ways of engaging underserved student populations. The study will generate recommendations and guidelines that math education researchers and practitioners can use to devise theoretically based strategies in curriculum and teacher professional development for increasing and sustaining student engagement and learning in mathematics. The findings will have implications for curriculum redesign and classroom pedagogy.