Mathematics motivation and achievement as predictors of high school students' guessing and help-seeking with instructional software.

The study was conducted to investigate the relation of adolescent students' mathematics motivation and achievement to their appropriate help-seeking and inappropriate guessing behaviour while using instructional software. High school students ( n = 90) completed brief assessments of mathematics moti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Vol. 24; no. 6; pp. 507 - 515
Main Authors: Beal C, Qu L, Lee H
Format: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Dec2008
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:The study was conducted to investigate the relation of adolescent students' mathematics motivation and achievement to their appropriate help-seeking and inappropriate guessing behaviour while using instructional software. High school students ( n = 90) completed brief assessments of mathematics motivation and then worked with software for geometry instruction. Students' actions with the software were machine-classified to identify instances of appropriate help-seeking and inappropriate guessing. Mathematics teachers provided information about students' achievement (high, average or at risk of failing math class). Results indicated that students with low math self-concept were most likely to engage in inappropriate guessing behaviour. Students with low math achievement were most likely to engage in appropriate help-seeking while working with the software.