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The positive relationship between students' attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics achievement is well documented. Yet there is a worsening problem of low appeal of mathematics especially at the secondary level. Therefore, in this paper we focus on three high school students who report a strong dislike of mathematics. By analyzing student surveys, interviews, and lesson observation data, we examined how some mathematical lessons improved these students' experiences (i.e., their aesthetic dimensions). We found that while student preferences varied, each student was interested in lessons that centered them as sense-makers and in which the content unfolded with suspense. Such lessons led to positive aesthetic responses such as surprise, curiosity, and satisfaction. Thus, lessons can be designed in which even students with the most negative views of mathematics can find mathematical concepts interesting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Engagement in the mathematics classroom through interactions with the instructor, peers, and content are necessary for an effective learning experience. As such, it is important to understand the types of interactions that teachers utilize to engage students, especially as they have had to shift from a complete face-to-face setting to various remote modalities. Utilizing four interaction types (learner-content, learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-interface) this paper analyzes 35 videos of classroom instruction with the purpose of describing the interactions that take place throughout the course of the mathematics lesson. While there was not a significant difference in the type of interaction and the modality of instruction, there was a significant difference in the type of interaction enacted and the modality of instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study describes how the common representations are coordinated. I analyzed a popular geometry textbook using semiotics and a pragmatic approach to capture the variety of representations into categories and to use descriptive statistics to narrow the focus to the most common representations and coordinations. The major findings are: (1) exposing which representations are most often coordinated like written language; (2) some of the mechanisms in coordination use numbers, point names, and textbook gestures, which include color, arrows, font changes, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modified, bilingual Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) instrument was administered to 1,258 high school students in South Texas in an NSF-funded project on informal learning of mathematics and near peer mentoring. We explore students' survey response behaviors and examine the existence of careless and insufficient effort (CIE) responses. This is empirical research for handling the challenge of CIE responses that leads to improved survey data quality, thus eventually validating the intervention effect of the mathematical informal learning project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation utilized publicly available data from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009 (HSLS:09) by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) to examine any latent structures among variables which may empirically support the validity and reliability of a mathematical sense of belonging (MSB) construct. Using the nationally representative survey data in the HSLS:09, the proposed study performed an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to create a complex construct of students' MSB or mathematical belongingness. A weighted sample of over 13,000 (N=13,354) high school students was used to conduct the EFA, which was then mapped onto Mahar and colleagues' (2012) intersecting, transdisciplinary themes of belonging. Possible implications for preservice teachers, professional development for practicing teachers, as well as future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a popular myth that mathematical creativity is a trait possessed by a small group of people. This is perpetuated by the lack of understanding of what influences mathematical creativity, especially in the classroom. In particular, professional mathematicians often name aesthetic experiences as a critical aspect of their mathematical creativity. Therefore, this study examines aesthetic dimensions of episodes of student creativity from the high school classroom. Several types of aesthetic experiences arose across the episodes. Students were motivated to take creative action by experiences of mystery or discomfort. Furthermore, in some instances, taking a creative action was accompanied and propelled by a sense of craziness or satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]