“I want a high-educated job that pays well and is fun”: Secondary students’ relevance beliefs for taking advanced mathematics

Anders Wiik (1) , Pauline Vos (1)

1 UIA - University of Agder

Many students experience the content of the mathematics classroom irrelevant to their lives. At the same time, achievement in mathematics is widely regarded as an important part of general education. In this paper, we report on a study regarding students’ relevance beliefs. For this, we network Engeström’s cultural-historical activity theory with Skovsmose’s theory on foregrounds, and introduce the terms ‘realized’ and ‘emergent’ activity systems. Students provided a wide variety of beliefs, in which the belief of mathematics as door opener to higher education and key to options in life was leading. The belief in the exchange-value of mathematics overshadowed beliefs on the use-value of school mathematics (for other school subjects, for undefined jobs or for mental training). We recommend teachers and textbook authors to include more information on the relevance of mathematics in future studies and jobs.

Mots clés: Beliefs; exchange-value (of mathematics); cultural-historical activity theory; emergent activity systems; relevance (of mathematics)

Domaines: Mathématiques [math]; Education

Anders Wiik, Pauline Vos. “I want a high-educated job that pays well and is fun”: Secondary students’ relevance beliefs for taking advanced mathematics. Eleventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, Utrecht University, Feb 2019, Utrecht, Netherlands. ⟨hal-02410286⟩