Proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education · Volume 1
Mira Hykkelbjerg Wulff, Marcel Funk, Femke Sporn, Aiso Heinze
IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education
⬇ Download PDFThis paper examines how students attribute relevance to mathematically equivalent tasks in different contexts. Drawing on expectancy-value theory, relevance is considered across four perspectives (subjective/objective × present/future). A teaching unit on circle calculations and radian measure in the context of wind energy was implemented in grade 10 (N = 26). An analysis of group interviews shows that the authentic context mainly elicited objective relevance, while subjective relevance attributions remained rare. Quantitative data indicate higher relevance beliefs about mathematics in general than for the specific content. Consequently, contextualization can highlight societal and curricular relevance, but additional metacognitive reflection appears necessary to foster students’ subjective relevance attributions.
RelevanceContextualizationAuthenticity