The effects of mediation on the attitudes and achievement of mathematics students in student-directed and teacher-directed learning situations

Marsh, Frank Gene (1976) The effects of mediation on the attitudes and achievement of mathematics students in student-directed and teacher-directed learning situations. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (34MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

This study was motivated by the increased use of multi-media and individualized instruction in the classroom. The present study was designed to investigate any effect of mediated (non-print) and non-mediated (print) instruction on mathematics attitudes, mathematics achievement, and the attitude-achievement relationship. The investigation was carried out using both student-directed and teacher-directed learning situations. -- One hundred eighteen grade seven mathematics students from an elementary school were randomly assigned to four treatment groups; student-directed mediated, student-directed, teacher-directed mediated and teacher-directed. The students were given a mathematics attitude and mathematics achievement pretest. At the end of the study the students were given a mathematics attitude and mathematics achievement posttest. From this, a sample of 100, 25 from each group, was randomly selected for analysis purposes. The pretest scores were used as covariates for analysis. -- A comparison of the mean attitude and mean achievement scores for the four treatment groups showed no significant difference in attitudes or achievement for any of the treatments. -- Significant correlations between mathematics attitudes and achievement were found on the pretest scores for the teacher directed group, overall teacher-directed strategy, overall mediated strategy and overall non-mediated strategy. -- Using the posttest scores of attitudes and achievement, significant correlations were found for the student-directed mediated group, student-directed and teacher-directed strategies, and overall mediated and non-mediated strategies. -- An interpretation of these findings for the groups must consider the limitation of the short duration of the study. -- The study concluded with several implications for education and some suggestions for further research.

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