The Research On How Participating Mathematical Oriented Extra-curricular Activities In Elementary Education Influences Core Mathematical Literacy Of Junior High Students

Nowadays, an increasing number of primary school students are attending various math-related classes, including math contest class, math class prepared for junior high school, abacus mental calculation class, etc. Some courses are about the math-contest-related knowledge, others are about the knowledge which is beyond the textbook’s content. Although the knowledge might not be as difficult as the one of math contests, the philosophy of it can exert a subtle influence on the students. In this paper, the mathematic classes of this kind are all called mathematic extracurricular activities.This paper studies the influences on the mathematic core literacy of middle school students who have attended the mathematic extracurricular courses during their primary study. The novel concept of mathematic core literacy originates from the ten core concepts in the Standard of Mathematics Curriculum for Compulsory Education (2011 edition). Besides that, whether there is a link between the fact that the students have attended the mathematic extracurricular activities and their mathematic study in middle school and the mathematic core literacy as well has not been studied so far. This issue is worth studying. Based on the study background and the recent situation, the study targets the teachers and students in two private schools and two public ones. The study resolves around the following questions. What factors are related to mathematic extracurricular activities? What are influences of attending extracurricular activities during primary school study on the middle school study? What factors will exert influences on the middle school mathematic core literacy? What influences of attending mathematic extracurricular activities or not are on the mathematic core literacy?The method of study features the combination of questionnaire analysis and interviews with both teachers and students. The study proves the assumption that attending mathematic extracurricular classes can improve students’ comprehensive ability. The comprehensive ability involves motivation of, the interest in, and habit of learning math, and the intention to challenge the difficulties as well. Apart from that, PISA test paper presented that the mathematic core literacy of the students who have already attended mathematic extracurricular activities are better than the one of who have not. What is worth noticing is that there is no prominent link between the gender of students and their previous experience of attending mathematic extracurricular activities, while those who have attended the mathematic extracurricular activities tend to perform better than those who have not.The study aims to call upon those capable students to attend mathematic extracurricular classes, given the fact that those who have attended such classes have advantages in terms of study motivation, interest, etc. Hence, attending mathematic extracurricular activities is of great significance.