Mathematical Intimacy within Blended and
Face-to-face Learning Environments
Oana Radu, [oradu@mun.ca],
Tim Seifert, [tseifert@mun.ca],
Memorial University, Canada
Abstract
This paper analyzes students’ mathematical intimacy, confidence, perseverance and flow experiences while learning mathematics in two settings. Are students more engaged in problem solving, more inclined to experience joy, more confident and persistent while doing mathematics in blended or in traditional learning environments? Students in a blended learning environment responded to two sets of items assessing mathematical intimacy, confidence, persistence and flow. The first set of items asked about mathematics in general; the second asked about these constructs in the context of MyMathLab. The factor structure from survey one was imposed upon the data for the students in the blended classroom, and a multi-group analysis performed. Results suggested that students in the blended classroom had slightly lower intimacy scores for MyMathLab experiences than for mathematics in general, but differences were not statistically detectable. However, the variance of the distribution of intimacy scores was larger for MyMathLab experiences because of a slight decrease in those scores. Slightly lower mathematical intimacy scores for some students in the MyMathLab framework might interpreted as a result of their inability of experiencing joy in doing mathematics in the brief period of time when they were solving math online. These lower scores of mathematical intimacy translate into decreased enjoyment and sense of well being that leads to poorer confidence, and slightly lowered confidence scores.
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