Mathematics Is Practice or Argumentation: Mindset Priming Impacts Principle- and Procedure-Orientation of Teachers' Explanations

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Applied 2019-12, Vol.25 (4), p.618-646
• Main Authors: Weinhuber, Mona, Lachner, Andreas, Leuders, Timo, Nückles, Matthias
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classrooms; Comprehension; Experience Level; Female; Human; Humans; Male; Mathematics; Mathematics (Concepts); Mindset; Preservice Teachers; Priming; Procedural Knowledge; Schools; Teaching; Test Construction
• ISSN: 1076-898X; 1939-2192
• DOI: 10.1037/xap0000227

In this article we introduce the notion of mindset as a situationally contingent perspective on teaching mathematics. Mindsets create a readiness to act intellectually in a particular manner. We propose that mindsets can explain teachers' inclination to adopt a procedure-oriented approach to teaching mathematics that is prevailing in many classrooms. To investigate the mindset hypothesis, we conducted 3 experiments. In Study 1 (N = 97), preservice mathematics teachers read 1 of 3 comics depicting common classroom scenarios. Results showed that the comics were comprehended as intended. In Study 2 (N = 62), preservice mathematics teachers were incidentally presented 1 of the comics as a prime. Subsequently, they drafted an explanation about an extremum problem. Preservice teachers primed with a math-club comic generated more principle-oriented and less procedure-oriented explanations, whereas preservice teachers primed with a math-test-prep or school-trip-planning comic generated more procedure-oriented and less principle-oriented explanations. Study 3 (N = 54) successfully replicated the main findings of Study 2 with experienced inservice teachers who were assumed to have developed automated routines in giving explanations. We conclude that the information the comics contained about the social practices surrounding mathematics triggered teachers' readiness to either include or omit principled or procedural information when drafting explanations. Public Significance Statement The experimental studies in this paper offer an explanation as to why many mathematics teachers are inclined to provide explanations that mainly describe the steps for solving a problem without elucidating the mathematical principles behind the steps. It is suggested that the prevailing social practices of mathematics classrooms trigger a mindset in teachers that leads them to give procedure-oriented rather than principle-oriented explanations.