Visual Support Mediates Pressure During Learning in Proportional Reasoning Instruction

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Performance pressure is an anxious desire to perform at a high level (Hardy, Mullen, & Jones, 1996), which in mathematics may contribute to persistent achievement gaps and underrepresentation in STEM Career trajectories (Vanneman, Hamilton, Anderson, & Rahman, 2009; PISA, 2013; Gonzales et al, 2008). The worries and anxious ideation from performance pressure can overload executive function resources, leaving fewer resources to engage in the task (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992). This can lead students to underperform on cognitively demanding tests (see Beilock, 2010). However, the effect of pressure on math learning has not been examined. If pressure heightens cognitive load during math instruction, students’ ability to learn math may be impaired. Mathematics learning research has shown that providing high visual support (e.g., worked examples) may reduce students’ cognitive resource load, to improve learning outcomes. This study investigates an important question in mathematics education, drawing on cognitive psychological theory to gain new insights.

Hypothesis. In this study, we examine whether (1) performance pressure impairs learning of a conceptually demanding mathematics lesson, and (2) high visual support can reduce the strain on a student's cognitive resource, to mediate the negative effects of pressure.

Participants. 478 5th and 6th graders in the Chicagoland area, from schools with primarily underrepresented minority or low-income youth, were randomly assigned to condition within classrooms.

Methods. A two-by-two field experiment was conducted in which performance pressure (pressure during learning versus no pressure) and visual support (low versus high) were each manipulated during a conceptually demanding proportional reasoning lesson. Students completed a video lesson and packet on two proportional reasoning problem solving strategies, as well as pre-test and immediate and delayed post-tests. Prior to the lesson, students were randomly assigned to pressure and visual support conditions. Students in the pressure condition were given a social-evaluative stressor (see Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004): they were told their pretest score was low and if they did not achieve a very high score for the lesson, their class would not receive a pizza party. Those in the no pressure condition were only asked to do their best. For the low visual support condition, only one strategy was shown at a time, with no further instruction provided; for the high visual support condition, strategies were displayed simultaneously during comparative instruction, and packets included worked examples of problems.

Analysis Plan. Data collection was completed in the Winter of 2020 and scanned to be available virtually. Data coding is reliable and will be complete by the end of October 2020. Problem solving is coded for participants’ strategy use, set-up, procedures, and accuracy.

Multiple regression will be used to examine the overall effects of pressure and pedagogical support through worked examples. We will also examine the potential mediating effects of worked examples on pressure during learning for immediate and delayed post-test scores.

Study results will provide insight into how pressure may impact student learning, not only testing, as well as into one potential strategy for reducing these effects – adding extra visual support to reduce cognitive effort during instruction.

Authors

• Elayne Vollman, Lake Forest College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly Marie Trezise, Loughborough University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bella Sarah Lerner, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Lindsey Engle Richland, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author