Measuring risk taking

Risk taking can be defined as the preparedness of a student to attempt to answer a question when not certain of the result. In this paper, three different measures of risk taking were applied to multichoce paper. Specifically, data from the Australian Mathematics Competition, one of the largest data bases of its type, for the years 1988 and 1989, are analysed to measure risk taking by groups of students classified by gender, school year, and achievement level.     

Peer Perspectives on Teaching: A Case Study in Mathematics

This paper describes an experiment devised to increase our understanding of good teaching practices. Each of two instructors selected a topic and on two consecutive mornings they taught a topic of their choice to a group of 21 experienced and competent tertiary educators but without expertise in the subject area being taught. The organization of the experiment is outlined, and the subject matter selected and strategies adopted by the instructors are described. Outcomes of the experiment are reported in two ways: in terms of general comments provided by the independent evaluator and in terms of the participant's reactions to the exercise. While mathematics teaching was the basis of this study, the peer review process described has general applicability to all disciplines.     

Student Views of Computer-Based Mathematics in the Middle Years: Does Gender Make a Difference?

How the use of computers in mathematics classrooms was viewed by students in two middle years mathematics classrooms was the focus of the research described in this paper. The primary data sources consisted of questionnaires, classroom observations supported by videotaping of mathematics lessons, and interviews with two girls and two boys from each class. Thus both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Girls viewed the computer-based lessons less favourably than did boys. In general, the boys were likely to believe that computers contributed to their experiencing pleasure in these lessons, and to making mathematics more relevant to them. Girls were typically more concerned about whether computers facilitated learning and enabled success in mathematics. The attitudes of students to computer-based mathematics were related to their views of computers.     

Causal attributions for success and failure in mathematics: A cross cultural perspective

In this study the attributional patterns for success and failure in mathematics of students in Papua New Guinea are compared with those of students in Australia. The sample comprised 491 grade 10 students: 169 girls and 322 boys. While relatively few differences were found in the attributional patterns of boys and girls and of high and low achieving students, there appeared to be substantial differences between students in the two countries in their attributions for success and failure in mathematics. Possible reasons for this are explored in the paper.     

Student Achievement: A Factor in Classroom Dynamics?

This study examined differences in interaction patterns between teachers and high and low achieving and high and low expectation students. Records of verbal teacher‐student interactions, both public and private, were obtained through videotaping ten grade 3 and grade 6 classes during mathematics and language lessons. Teachers tended to interact most frequently with high achieving and high expectancy students, particularly at the grade 6 level, but consistently spent more time waiting for and interacting with low achieving and low expectation students.     

Bright girls,mathematics and fear of success

A review of the relevant literature has identified two important areas of sex differences in the field of mathematics. Not only do considerably more boys than girls perform very well in mathematics, but girls, far more frequently than boys, choose not to take intensive mathematics courses once they are no longer compulsory. A variety of factors are frequently cited to explain such consistent sex differences. This paper reports two studies that examine whether there is a relation between fear of success and sex differences in performance and participation in mathematics courses. The evidence provided highlights the effect of environmental pressures. Possible classroom based intervention programs are discussed.     

Enhancing survey participation: Facebook advertisements for recruitment in educational research*

Surveys are commonly used to determine how people feel about a specific issue. The increasing availability of the internet and popularity of social networking sites have opened up new possibilities for conducting surveys and, with limited additional costs, enlarge the pool of volunteer respondents with the desired background, experience, or characteristics. In this paper, three different educational research studies are described. In each, a Facebook advertisement was among the methods used for recruitment of survey participants. In two of the studies, Facebook advertising was adopted to overcome obstacles encountered when more traditional sampling procedures failed; in the third study, Facebook was used to broaden representation to include international participants within project budget limitations. Details of the studies and of the recruitment approaches adopted, and the effectiveness of using Facebook advertising are presented. The limitations of using Facebook as a source of recruitment are also considered.