Does students’ interest in a mathematical problem depend on the problem’s connection to reality? An analysis of students’ interest and pre-service teachers’ judgments of students’ interest in problems with and without a connection to reality

“Why do I have to learn this?” A case study on students’ experiences of the relevance of mathematical modelling activities

“…We want to further distinguish between interest and relevance. Rellensmann and Schukajlow (2016) define interest as a psychological state, which describes a relationship between a person and an object; for an object to be interesting, there is no need for a usefulnessorientation. So, when Julie and Holtman (2008) asked students in grades 8-10 what contexts they would prefer to deal with in mathematical activities, they asked for their interest, because they did not ask students for any future use.…”

Multiple Solutions, The Experience of Competence, and Interest

“…However, we know from previous studies that students' interest on problems with connection to reality is similar as for problem without connection to real-world (Schukajlow et al, 2012). In a recent study, students' interest in problems with connection to reality was even lower than their interest in problems without connection to reality (Rellensmann & Schukajlow, 2017), taking the task-difficulty into account. Thus, the teaching method of real-world problems seems to be at least as much important for triggering students' interest as the problem that teachers chose for particular classes.…”

Posing New Researchable Questions as a Dynamic Process in Educational Research

“…The first example relates to the following research question: "What is the potential of mathematical problems, with or without a connection to reality, to trigger students' task-specific interest in problem solving?" In describing this example, we draw primarily on work by Schukajlow and colleagues (Rellensmann & Schukajlow, 2017;Schukajlow, Leiss, Pekrun, Blum, Müller, & Messner, 2012) who distinguished between two broad categories of problems: those with a connection to reality, called "realworld problems," and those without such a connection to reality, called "intra-mathematical problems." Although there are sub-categories within each of these categories of problems, real-world problems are often used in curriculum materials for the purpose of triggering student interest (Meyer, Dekker, & Querelle, 2001).…”

“…For example, Schukajlow et al (2012) found no difference in students' interest in real-world and intra-mathematical problems. In a follow-up study, Rellensmann and Schukajlow (2017) investigated the above research question by controlling for task difficulty, which was a factor that prior research including Schukajlow et al (2012) had tended to overlook. Controlling for task difficulty resulted in the reversal of Rellensmann and Schukajlow's (2017) original expectations, for they found that "intra-mathematical problems [rather than real-world problems] are better suited for capturing students' interest" (p. 375).…”

“…In a follow-up study, Rellensmann and Schukajlow (2017) investigated the above research question by controlling for task difficulty, which was a factor that prior research including Schukajlow et al (2012) had tended to overlook. Controlling for task difficulty resulted in the reversal of Rellensmann and Schukajlow's (2017) original expectations, for they found that "intra-mathematical problems [rather than real-world problems] are better suited for capturing students' interest" (p. 375). According to the authors, "[t]hese findings underpin the idea that task difficulty is a factor that should be taken into account in research on task-specific interest (Renninger, 1998) because the difference in students' interest in solving problems with and without a connection to reality is hidden if the confounding effect of task difficulty is not controlled for" (p. 375).…”