What's the story with story problems? Exploring the relationship between contextual mathematics tasks, student engagement, and motivation to learn mathematics in middle school

WHAT’S THE STORY WITH STORY PROBLEMS? EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONTEXTUAL MATHEMATICS TASKS, STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, AND MOTIVATION TO LEARN MATHEMATICS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL By Jamie L. W. Wernet Contextual tasks, or tasks that include scenarios described at least in part with nonmathematical language or pictures, are a long-standing part of mathematics education in the United States. These tasks may have potential to promote student engagement and motivation to learn mathematics by highlighting applications of mathematics to everyday matters and generating interest in the content (e.g., van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, 2005). Yet, several scholars have challenged the belief that contextual tasks can serve to motivate students and problematized their role in mathematics curricula (e.g., Chazan, 2000; Gerofsky, 2004). Some theoretical and empirical evidence exists to support both claims. This study addresses a call for more research on how student motivation and engagement in mathematics are influenced in specific learning situations, namely, working on contextual tasks. Motivation describes a person’s choice, persistence, and performance when engaging in an activity (Brophy, 2004), whereas engagement is active involvement in a learning activity (Helme & Clarke, 2001) and the observable manifestation of motivation (Skinner, Kindermann, & Furrer, 2008). The purpose of this multiple-case study was to consider the general questions, Do contextual tasks have potential to engage students, and if so, under what circumstances? , and How do students experience these tasks relative to their motivation to learn mathematics? In particular, I considered enactment of tasks across lessons in two 7-grade mathematics classrooms. Through analyzing data from observations, lesson-specific teacher and student surveys, and focus group interviews, I identified the most and least engaging lessons for students, then characterized the tasks in these lessons as written and enacted. I found that students were more likely to show high levels of engagement in contextual tasks than noncontextual tasks. Their engagement in contextual tasks was related, however, to the learning goals of the task, its placement in a unit, and the function of the context in problem solving. In high-engagement lessons, the tasks tended toward open-ended tasks with contexts central in solving the problem. I also found differences in the way students and teachers attended to contextual features of tasks between the highand low-engagement lessons. Students drew on the context more in the high engagement lessons, and were more likely to connect the context to the main mathematical ideas in the lesson. Teachers also paid more attention to contexts and in more diverse ways across the high-engagement lessons. I also drew on the data sources using expectancy-value theory to explore in depth how students responded to individual tasks relative to their motivation to learn mathematics. Aspects of tasks students attended to (including contexts) when reflecting on the value of mathematical content and their experiences in lessons was related to their underlying motivation to learn. Trends across groups of students, however, indicate that task contexts play little role in promoting students’ valuing of mathematics or beliefs that they can be successful on a task. Based on these findings, I argue that some contextual tasks engage students by eliciting genuine interest in the context itself, providing entry into and support in solving the problem, and anchoring the instruction to provide students a shared experience on which to develop their understanding of the mathematical concepts. Yet, contextual tasks do not necessarily have the same potential to motivate students to learn. I discuss implications for teachers, curriculum design, and future research regarding the purpose and function of contextual tasks.