Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemTrainee-teachers: can attitudes and achievement in mathematics be improved?( 1988)The aim of the investigation was to compare the effects of different class-groupings upon the Attitude to, and Achievement in, Mathematics of Primary Teacher Trainees. The experiment was of the pre-test, post-test design, with students randomly assigned to Experimental or Control classes. Lecturers taking part were assigned one Experimental and one Control group each. The treatment comprised the First Year Mathematics Education Course at Phillip Institute of Technology, with students assigned to classes which were either homogeneous (Experimental) or heterogeneous (Control) with respect to school Mathematics background. The sample was drawn from an entire entry cohort (with depletions), to give a sub-population of about one-third. The experimental conditions extended over ten months (the time between dependent variable measurings) and subjects were not treated as special in other than those (grouping) ways mentioned above. Simple graphical analyses showed results of the treatment to be quite varied. Predicted outcomes were supported in few instances (measured by Effect Sizes) but in the main, hypotheses remain unsupported by this investigation - which matches the results of the majority of studies in this field.