Improving Student Engagement in Middle School Mathematics Through E-Learning - Annotated Bibliography

Mulqueeny, K., Kostyuk, V., Baker, R., & Ocumpaugh, J. (2015). Incorporating effective e-learning principles to improve student engagement in middle school mathematics. International Journal of STEM Education, 2, 1-15. DOI 10.1186/s40594-015-0028-6

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Researchers Mulqueeny, Kostyuk, Baker, and Ocumpaugh (2015) at the University of Chicago sort to study the impact of integrating effective e-learning principles to improve student engagement in mathematics for middle-school students. According to the researchers, the expansion and increase in the blended learning and online programs within the K-12 STEM education have made researchers establish effective e-learning systems. However, the researchers noted that a lot of the research conducted as primarily focused on the impact of learning, as opposed to how the instructional design impacts on the engagement of students. Therefore, the authors aimed at comparing the engagement of students with Genie 3 platform with its predecessors Genie 2 as well as the traditional classroom instruction. From their analysis, it was established that there was a massive level of engagement with the Genie 2 platform with 89% and 71% time spent on task and the engagement concentration, respectively. The study also showed that the approaches led to more engaged concentration as well as less boredom and concentration for the students. As such, the article concluded that the increase in personalization, the minimization of redundancy, and the application of multiple modalities resulted in an increase in engaged concentration and an increase in peer interaction. The findings were addressed to the educational decision-makers to evaluate how some changes can be carried out to facilitate effective student engagement and learning in mathematics for middle-school students.

The researchers used an effective approach in comparing two generations of reasoning to investigate the research question. It should be noted that Genie 2 and Genie 3 are used in elementary and middle school students. Therefore, the comparison would facilitate an understanding of the underlying issues in consideration of the research questions regarding the type of learning and the level of engagement. The study ensured both internal reliability and external reliability by using a test-retest approach. Three different studies were conducted on separate occasions to evaluate and compare the findings. The approach was a major strength of the study as it facilitated the avoidance of possible bias. One of the important features of the study is the use of verifiable and replicable approaches like the quasi-experiment to investigate the relationship between the subjects and the objects of study. In this regard, the research findings and conclusions were highly reliable. However, the only major limitation of the study is the failure to perform random sampling and assignment. This may have influenced the validity of the results.

Brown, R. (2017). Using collective argumentation to engage students in a primary mathematics classroom. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 29, 183-199. DOI 10.1007/s13394-017-0198-2

Raymond Brown, a community learning and development researcher, sought to study the impact of using the collective argumentation to engage students in the mathematics classroom for primary students. The author noted that engaging students in the study had been a major problem for years in all parts of the world. While other researchers have focused on the role of the teachers and overall program in student engagement, Brown focused on the sociocultural perspectives to understand student engagement. This enabled the researcher to explore the constraints and affordances by deploying a sociocultural approach in the teaching of mathematics in primary school classrooms. In this regard, the article used a theoretical perspective with the application of the research design, as discussed by Cobb in his study and teaching experiment of the year 2000. The researcher used an interview approach to collect the relevant data, which was an interaction between the teachers and the students. The use of a participation framework then analyzed the data. From the analysis, Brown concluded that the various aspects of collective argumentation, like the use of students to explain, present, and justify ideas to the class, are very effective in facilitating student engagement in mathematics in primary schools.

By use of a teaching experiment, the researcher was able to study the various aspects of the theoretical framework that would be imperative in impacting on the student engagement in the class. The researcher studied different teachers and students as they interacted using the teaching experiment that was previously validated. In this regard, the study managed to form parallel forms of reliability by administering the different versions of the assessment criteria to the groups of students and teachers in the classroom. Besides, the researcher used an analytical approach, which was key to the quality and credibility of the study. For example, the procedure entailed a rigorous approach for the interviews and the classroom observations that were followed with the journal writing and reporting. The process presents important findings to the teachers regarding some of the methods they can use to facilitate effective student engagement. However, the researchers did not demonstrate the level of efficacy of the method, which may require further investigation.

Fung, F., Tan, C., & Chen, G. (2018). Student engagement and mathematics achievement: Unraveling main and interactive effects. Psychology in the Schools, 55, 815-831. DOI: 10.1002/pits.22139

Fung, Tan, and Chen are researchers at the University of Hong Kong in the Faculty of Education, who sort to study student engagement in schools. The researchers' sort to explore student engagement and the impact on achievement in mathematics. According to the article, student engagement is the sustained motivation of the students regarding their learning that facilitates the continuous development and improvement within the context of modern knowledge. The researchers hypothesized that the affective engagement of the students was related to the emotions in the process of learning. In this regard, the students who are more engaged actively tend to have a higher performance than the rest. Therefore, the study used secondary data from PISA 2012 to evaluate the relationship between the engagement of students and their performances. Some of the variables that were used in the examination were mathematics achievement, affective engagement, behavioral engagement, and cognitive engagement. By using these variables, the researchers were able to explore the main domains of psychological participation of students in the classwork. According to the findings obtained, all the three explored types of student engagement were positively correlated with the performance of students in mathematics.

The researchers used statistical computations to investigate the data. Considering that the data was credible as it was collected from a verifiable source, the correct computations would, therefore, establish credible results. The use of statistical analysis such as t-tests was imperative in establishing the correlation of the subjects and the variables of the study. This facilitates the replicability of the findings, when similar approaches are conducted for the same set of data, thereby illustrating the reliability of the findings. The findings are, therefore, important in the teaching domain, as the teachers can facilitate an understanding of the important areas of student engagement to improve their performances in mathematics. However, the study used cross-sectional data that preclude the claims of causality. For example, there was a possibility that the higher performing students were more engaged. Additionally, the data was used only from OECD countries, which could have limited applicability in other regions. Further studies are, therefore, necessary to avoid those limitations.

Rim-Kaufman, S., Baroody, A., Larsen, R., Curby, T., & Abry, T. (2015). To what extent do teacher-student interaction quality and student gender contribute to fifth graders' engagement in mathematics learning? Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(1), 170-183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037252

Rim-Kaufman, Baroody, Larsen, Curby, and Abry, researchers at different universities in the United States sort to examine the level of interaction between the teachers and the students and how it contributes to the engagement of fifth graders in the learning of mathematics. The authors noted that there had been a massive shift in mathematics education in the last about 20 years. The performance of mathematics has been a major concern for many students in different education programs across the globe. According to the study, one of the major considerations and recommendations to improve student performance is active engagement in the classroom. However, the researchers noted that despite a broad body of research studying student engagement, few studies had focused exclusively on student engagement in the mathematics subject. Therefore, the authors conducted a pilot study to evaluate student engagement under three categories of behavioral engagement, social engagement, and cognitive and emotional engagement. Self-reported questionnaires were used to investigate the factors. According to the study findings, the students in the class who had higher emotional support demonstrated a higher emotional, cognitive, and social engagement.

The research study used a statistical analytical approach to evaluate the correlation between the variables. Considering that all the fifth graders evaluated showed a high-level of engagement in mathematics, it is evident that teachers have recognized the need for engagement in teaching the subject for better student performance. The study is of importance as it demonstrates the different behaviors that facilitate student performance in schools. Besides, the study evaluated different areas of engagement, which facilitated a broad approach towards behavioral management of students, and its impact in the classroom responses. By using correlational studies, the findings demonstrate a lot of validity and reliability. However, the study did not examine the peer interactions and the role they may have played in the student's perception of their performances. Nevertheless, the findings demonstrate the need for student engagement to improve on mathematics performances.