Abstract

The present study focuses on creating a more pleasurable learning experience for students learning maths. Participants completed two lists of maths problems, a short list of only difficult maths problems and an extended list with both difficult maths problems and moderately difficult maths problems, placed in the beginning, end, or both beginning and end of the list. When asked to choose a third list to complete, participants preferred one of the extended list over the short list and found the extended lists to be less discomforting. Of the three types of extended lists, participants reported the one in which the moderately difficult maths problems were situated at both the beginning and end of the list to be the least discomforting. Participants self-reported maths anxiety did not moderate these effects. However, participants’ maths anxiety was negatively correlated with predicted and actual maths performance and positively correlated with discomfort ratings. These results suggest that by creating lists of maths problems in which the relatively easier problems are given before or after the more difficult maths problems, educators can create a more favourable learning experience that could help both maths-anxious and nonmath-anxious students practice more maths problems.

摘要

本研究侧重于为学习数学的学生创造更愉快的学习体验。参与者完成了两个数学问题列表，一个只有困难数学问题的简短列表和一个包含困难数学问题和中等难度数学问题的扩展列表，放在列表的开头、结尾或开头和结尾。当要求选择第三个列表来完成时，参与者更喜欢扩展列表中的一个而不是短列表，并发现扩展列表不太令人不适。在这三种类型的扩展列表中，参与者报告说，中等难度的数学问题位于列表的开头和结尾的一种是最不令人不适的。参与者自我报告的数学焦虑并没有减轻这些影响。然而，参与者的数学焦虑与预测和实际数学表现呈负相关，与不适评分呈正相关。这些结果表明，通过创建数学问题列表，在更难的数学问题之前或之后给出相对容易的问题，教育工作者可以创造更有利的学习体验，这可以帮助数学焦虑和非数学焦虑的学生练习更多的数学问题。