Students Authoring Personalized “Algebra Stories”: Problem-Posing in the Context of Out-of-School Interests

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Posters in Mathematics Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Algebra is an important subject for students’ educational and economic futures; however students often do not see algebra as connected to their lives. Research on personalized learning and on problem-posing offers important avenues to enhance access and motivation for algebra. We engaged 24 students in sessions where they posed and solved algebra story problems based on their out-of-school interests in topics like sports, video games, and social networking. We found that students had a number of difficulties with problem-posing, including using precise language and conceptualizing a relationship between unknown quantities. However, students’ "funds of knowledge" about their interest area seemed to act as an important scaffold for problem-posing, and participating in the problem-posing task improved students’ attitudes towards mathematics.

Authors

• Candace A. Walkington, Southern Methodist University

• Matthew L. Bernacki, University of Nevada - Las Vegas