Protagonist gender as a design variable in adapting mathematics story problems to learner interests

AV communication review - 1990
Laura O. Murphy1, Steven M. Ross2
1the Health Science Center, College of Medicine, Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities, University of Tennessee, Memphis
2Department of Foundations of Education, College of Education, Memphis State University, Memphis

Tóm tắt

Junior-high students solved mathematics story problems featuring a male protagonist, a female protagonist, or both. A total of 252 eighth-graders from a rural school and a suburban school participated. Females and especially males strongly preferred own-gender over opposite-gender protagonists. Female performance exceeded male performance overall, regardless of protagonist gender. For the rural sample only, and more so for high-ability than low-ability students, performance was higher for those who received preferred-protagonist problems. Problem-solving performance was strongly related to standardized mathematics achievement scores, but was not significantly related to race or socioeconomic status. The implications of the findings for using preferred contexts as a basis for instructional adaptation in mathematics education are discussed.

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