Evaluation of an Innovative Mathematics Program in Terms of Classroom Environment, Student Attitudes, and Conceptual Development

Abstract

Dull classroom environments, poor students' attitudes and inhibited conceptual development led to the creation of an innovative mathematics program, the Class Banking System (CBS), which enables teachers to use constructivist ideas and approaches. To assess the effectiveness of the CBS, the Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ), Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES), Test of MathematicsRelated Attitudes (TOMRA), and concept map tests were administered to two groups of fifth-grade students as pretests and posttests over an academic year. To enrich the data collected from those questionnaires, three case studies (one for the experimental group and two for the control group) were undertaken based on observations and interviews of selected students. Relative to non-CBS students, CBS students experienced more favorable changes in terms of mathematics concept development, attitudes to mathematics, and perceived classroom environments on several dimensions of the CLES (e.g., Personal Relevance, Shared Control) and the ICEQ (e.g., Participation and Differentiation). Qualitative information based on classroom observations and student interviews reinforced and enriched the patterns of results obtained from the concept test and questionnaires. Marshall (1990) and Hand (1996) recommend that teachers should move away from being authority figures who have status and power to become more like facilitators. Business leaders have called for graduates who can work as team members to solve problems, and therefore for a curriculum that provides students with opportunities to collaborate, solve problems, and construct understandings. The Class Banking System (CBS) is an interactive elementary mathematics program that uses constructivist approaches. The experiences that students encounter through this 10-month program have been designed to enhance the teaching/learning environment and their attitudes and conceptual development. The CBS emphasizes learning with understanding, rather than the coverage of content, rote learning and obtaining correct answers, and it requires students to collaborate with other classmates. The purpose of our research was to investigate whether using the innovative CBS mathematics program provides students with an improved classroom environment, attitudes, and concep-

Classroom environment and student outcomes among students using anthropometry activities in high‐school science

“…Therefore, the study contributes to the field of learning environments research by adding another study to the limited research that has employed the classroom environment as a criterion of effectiveness in evaluating educational innovations (e.g. Teh & Fraser, 1994;Maor & Fraser, 1996;Nix et al, 2005;Spinner & Fraser, 2005).…”

“…First, several widely applicable and carefully validated questionnaires for assessing student perceptions of classroom environments formed the starting point for the selection and adaptation of a learning environment questionnaire for use in the present study. Second, this study followed previous research (Teh & Fraser, 1994;Maor & Fraser, 1996;Nix et al, 2005;Spinner & Fraser, 2005) in which educational innovations have been evaluated in part in terms of their impact in transforming the classroom learning environment Wong & Fraser, 1996).…”

Learning Environment, Attitudes and Achievement among Middle-school Science Students Using Inquiry-based Laboratory Activities

“…Subsequently, other specificpurpose instruments were developed, validated and applied for a variety of research purposes around the world. In particular, these questionnaires include the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI; Fraser et al 1995;Henderson et al 2000;Lightburn and Fraser 2007;Wong and Fraser 1996), Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES; Kim et al 1999;Nix et al 2005;Spinner and Fraser 2001;Taylor et al 1997) and the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) used in the present study (Aldridge et al 1999;Dorman 2003;Fraser and Chionh 2000;Ogbuehi and Fraser 2007).…”

Learning Environment and Attitudes Associated with an Innovative Science Course Designed for Prospective Elementary Teachers

“…The Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA, Fraser, 1981) has been frequently used to assess students_ attitudes, both in its original form with seven scales and 70 items and in shorter modified forms, and in modified form to assess attitudes to mathematics (Quek, Wong & Fraser, 2005;Spinner & Fraser, 2005). In addition to the six learning environment scales, eight items were selected from TOSRA_s Enjoyment of Science Lessons scale.…”