A Survey On Students' Interest In Different Situational Mathematics Problems

As one of the most important factors affecting senior high school students' mathematics learning,interest has being paid increasing attention both theoretically and practically.However,recent domestic studies on interest in mathematics learning remain focusing on simple description and experience analysis.Taking some Senior One and Senior Two students from a key high school in Shanghai as the research objects,the thesis,after getting a general ideal of students' mathematics interest,investigated their situational interest based on a questionnaire involving different situational mathematics problems closely related to their daily learning content,and further analyzed reasons behind it in accordance with interviews with some respondents.Main conclusions are as follows: 1.Compared with the non-context based problems,the majority of the investigated are more interested in context based problems;the proportion of students who are interested in the game problem is higher than those keen on the shooting problem;but the preference for context based and non-context based problems varies in a greater degree.2.There is no significant difference in situational interest between Senior One and Senior Two students,as well as between student groups of high and low test scores;male students show more interest in the game problem while female students are more fond of the shooting problem;students in high and low interest groups show significant preference in the two problems;those in low interest group are more likely to choose context based problems and the game problem.3.Situational interest is closely affected by relevance between the context problem and individual life experience,test related factors,the length of the context,and individual learning perspectives.