Exploring Fourth-Grade Teachers' Feelings and Beliefs for Math as Predictors of Students' Math Engagement

• In Event: Can Teacher Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs Explain Changes in Student Mathematics Learning and Engagement?

Abstract

As of 2017, less than 40% of U.S. fourth graders demonstrated proficiency in mathematics (NAEP, 2017), illustrating the need to understand factors impacting elementary students’ math achievement. Teachers play an important role in students’ academic development as they are largely responsible for determining students’ learning experiences. Recent investigations have suggested that improvements to teachers’ pedagogical and content knowledge do not translate to improved student outcomes (Jayanthi et al., 2017), indicating that the field is missing consideration of other important teacher factors. It has been shown that one’s feelings and beliefs can impact performance (Fisheret al., 2013; Tendler & Wagner, 2015), suggesting that teachers’ feelings/beliefs may contribute to their effectiveness. Unfortunately, elementary teachers report marked discomfort with math (Bates, Latham & Kim, 2013; Wilkins, 2008; 2009). The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of teachers’ enjoyment, anxiety, and self-efficacy for math as predictors of their students’ engagement in math. We anticipate that when teachers report more enjoyment, less anxiety, and more self-efficacy in math, their students will report higher engagement. Students’ engagement, characterized by their effort, persistence, and participation during instruction, is highly predictive of achievement (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004; NRC, 2004).

Data for this study were gathered in an ongoing investigation of teachers’ and students’ feelings/beliefs in elementary settings. Fifteen fourth-grade teachers and 200 students from 7 schools in Arizona make up the analytic sample. By the time of final report, data will be available on approximately 70 teachers and 1,200 students. 13 of the 15 teachers were female and 11 were Caucasian. Half of students were female, 70% were Hispanic/Latino(a), 16% were biracial, 6% were Caucasian, and the remaining 8% were other ethnicities including Asian and Native American. Teachers reported their enjoyment and anxiety for math using the Teacher Emotions Scale (Frenzel et al., 2016) in the early fall, and reported their self-efficacy for math using the Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (Enochs, Hicks & Huinker, 2000) in the early fall. Students reported their engagement in math using the Engagement vs. Disaffection scale (Wellborn, 1991) in the early fall and late winter.

Descriptive statistics and correlations are reported in Tables 1 and 2. Separate regression models were run regressing each of the teachers’ feeling/belief variables and students’ gender, and students’ initial math engagement (covariates) on students’ later math engagement. These models revealed a positive association between teachers’ enjoyment for math and students’ engagement (Table 3; B = .36, p < .01), a negative association between teachers’ anxiety for math and students’ engagement (Table 4; B = -.18, p = .01), and a positive association between teachers’ self-efficacy for math and students’ engagement (Table 5; B = .38, p = .03). Final models using the full data will account for nesting of students within classrooms and will include all independent variables as simultaneous predictors of students’ engagement. Results provide evidence that teacher math interventions need to address more than just pedagogical and content knowledge, and would likely benefit from also targeting teachers’ math feelings and beliefs.

Authors

• Leigh McLean, Arizona State University

• Manuela Jimenez, Arizona State University

• Erik Ruzek, NWEA