Page 45 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews

Impact of child and teacher factors on mathematical development
knowledge, and c) their mathematics teaching self-efficacy into account is quite scarce. Basic arithmetic fluency is rarely distinguished from later mathematical problem-solving, moreover. And consideration of the aforementioned factors together in a single study has yet to be done. In the present study, we thus examined the influences of specific teacher factors together with children’s math self-concept, math self- efficacy, and math anxiety on children’s mathematical development over time. A longitudinal design was adopted to allow us to monitor children’s mathematical development from the start to the end of the fourth grade.
The general research question was: How do a) children’s math self-concept, math self-efficacy, and math anxiety, b) teacher factors, and c) combinations of these child and teacher factors predict the development of children’s arithmetic fluency and mathematical problem-solving during the course of the fourth grade?
We expected, even after control for the children’s entrance level mathematical abilities, both the child and teacher factors to make unique contributions to the development of both arithmetic fluency and mathematical problem-solving.
Method
Participants and study context
Participants were recruited via social media (Twitter) and letters to both elementary school principals and fourth grade teachers (contact information gathered via public websites for schools). Two- thirds of those approached responded to the open invitation, which included information on the aims of the study, what was expected of the participants, and what the participants could expect of the researchers. In the end, 31 teachers agreed to participate and the study was conducted during the 2016-17 school year in the Netherlands.
The teachers worked with 610 children at 27 elementary schools located in different parts of the Netherlands. The sizes of the schools varied: 6% had fewer than 100 children (small); 66% had between 100- 400 children (medium); and 28% had more than 400 children (large).
2
43