Patterns of Instructional Discourse that Promote the Perception of Mastery Goals in a Social Constructivist Mathematics Course

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Voices Describe How Their Teacher Motivated Them to do Mathematics

“…None of the students mentioned the discourse pattern of the teacher's statements (Morrone et al, 2004); however, in indirect ways they did notice that the emphasis was on "pressing" for understanding and hard work as she made mastery goals salient. When teachers base their practice on a social constructivist perspective of learning within a cooperative structure, perhaps they implicitly make mastery goals salient.…”

“…This study builds upon a related study in which Morrone et al (2004) used content analysis of teacher statements made during large group instruction to study the nature of student motivation in Problem Solving. At times, these students persisted with solving problems and worked on tasks during breaks and after the class ended.…”

“…By using student voice, we feel as though we acknowledge the role that the students play in shaping our research and reporting our findings. We extend the results of the initial study (Morrone et al, 2004) to include the students' perceptions of the course and possible factors that helped motivate them to do mathematics, to stay through breaks, and work past the end of class time on tasks. Blumenfeld (1992) says that, "Perhaps it is time for the voice of the student to inform work on motivation and classroom learning" (p. 279).…”

“…One student [#17] said she struggled to reach new goals of basic mathematical understanding but that, "I have more new questions than I could possibly have imagined." According to the teacher, it was interesting that students mentioned struggle because the notion of struggle was the catalyst for the research questions in the quantitative study, Morrone et al (2004). The teacher approached Dr. Morrone because she wanted to know more about the relationship between struggle and motivation.…”

“…[Student #10] The quote above describes one student's focus on mastery goals following her experience in a mathematics course, Problem Solving, for preservice elementary teachers. Students in Problem Solving reported that they were highly motivated and that their teacher emphasized mastery goals (Morrone, Harkness, D'Ambrosio, and Caulfield, 2004). The study reported here was situated within the same classroom setting and with the same teacher who based her practice on a social constructivist framework of teaching and learning.…”