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

这个为期三年的研究项目将承担两大任务。任务1将发展和完善一个理论框架和自我报告工具，用于测量数学课堂中的情感参与。仪器和测量工作将涉及建立的心理测量仪器的属性，主要是它的结构效度。任务2将考察数学活动中的参与和学习如何根据活动的特征、学习环境的质量以及学生先前的态度、信念和知识而具有可塑性。为此，将进行定量实证研究，并使用分层线性模型（HLM）分析数据。研究问题如下：学生在数学活动中的参与是如何根据（1）活动本身的特征，（2）学习环境的质量，（3）学生的先前态度和信念而被差异化地诱发的？对学生的参与有什么影响？先验知识和这些因素之间的相互作用？ 一个学生参与数学活动与他或她所学的数学有什么关系？这项研究将产生一个经过验证的工具，可用于研究人员和从业人员来衡量位于数学课堂内的学生参与的关键方面。研究结果将推进关于学生参与的前因的理论，重点是研究参与服务不足的学生群体的方式。这项研究将产生建议和指导方针，数学教育研究人员和实践者可以用来设计理论为基础的战略，在课程和教师专业发展，以增加和维持学生的参与和学习数学。研究结果将对课程设计和课堂教学产生影响。

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.