Effect on student achievement and attitudes towards learning mathematics when integrating children's literature into a mathematics lesson

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect on students' mathematics achievement and attitudes when children's literature was integrated into the mathematics curriculum. A major goal of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1999; 2000) is for students to increase the amount and quality of their mathematical communication skills. This study researched how children's literature when integrated into mathematics might enrich the fourth grade curriculum and provide meaningful experiences for students to communicate their ideas and reasoning, thereby improving achievement. Through my research, I examined if infusing quality children's literature can improve student achievement and motivation in mathematics with three different treatment groups of fourth grade students. The children's literature treatment group received a mathematics lesson integrating children's literature, the textbook treatment group received a textbook-based lesson, and the control treatment group received no instruction. The results indicated that the students who received a lesson had an increase in student achievement and the children's literature treatment group had the highest student achievement in problem solving. Attitudes across all groups did not improve from the one lesson; thus, further research will need to be conducted to see if multiple lessons can change students' attitudes positively.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2007

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Hopkins, Martha H.

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Education

Degree Program

Elementary Education

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Education;Education -- Dissertations, Academic

Format

Print

Identifier

DP0022123

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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