Page 42 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews
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Chapter 2
a consequence, children may avoid further learning in the domain of mathematics, acquire increasingly more negative experiences with mathematics, and become more anxious with regard to mathematics. A vicious cycle thus emerges.
Most of the aforementioned research was cross-sectional, which precludes the drawing of conclusions about causal relations between — on the one hand — math self-concept, math self-efficacy, and math anxiety and — on the other hand — mathematics achievement. Most of the relevant studies concerned only high school students, moreover. And most of the studies considered only one aspect of self-belief (i.e., math self-concept or math self-efficacy or math anxiety) in connection with mathematics achievement.
Role of teacher factors
As might be expected, teacher characteristics and competencies can influence children’s mathematics achievement. In research, three specific teacher factors have been examined in relation to children’s mathematics achievement: the actual behavior of the teacher during mathematics lessons (e.g., Stronge et al., 2011), teacher’s mathematical knowledge for teaching (e.g., Campbell et al., 2014), and teacher’s self- efficacy with respect to the teaching of mathematics (e.g., Klassen et al., 2009).
When Van de Grift (2007) observed 854 mathematics lessons of teachers of nine year old children, the following teacher variables were found to play a critical role in children’s mathematics achievement: a safe and stimulating learning climate, clear instruction, adapted teaching, type of teaching and learning strategies (e.g., model, explain, scaffold), and efficient classroom management. When Stronge et al. (2011) compared outcomes of observed lessons with data on teacher effectiveness, they found classroom management but also the relationships with children to correlate most strongly with mathematics achievement. In contrast, Blazar (2015) found no associations of classroom climate and classroom management with mathematics achievement. He found instead that inquiry-orientated instruction positively predicted children’s achievement. Reynolds and Muijs (1999) found that both whole-class interactive and collaborative
 



























































































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