The Relation Between Interest-based Teaching Practices and Student Performance in The High School Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

This study consists of a survey that was administered online to students at the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport in the Fall 2020 semester. Participants were recruited from a variety of academic disciplines in reference to their high school mathematics experiences. The survey was broken up into two sections. The first section asked about the mathematics class that they received the highest grade in, and the second section asked about the mathematics class they received the lowest grade in. By asking the same questions across these two sections we were able to compare which teaching practices mathematics teachers employed that had a higher impact on student performance. It was found that interest-based teaching practices in the categories of Classroom Discussions, The Learning Environment, Connections to Everyday Life, and Presentation of Topics had statistically significant differences in the mean responses of participants. The implementation of these interest-based teaching practices may lead to an increase in student performance.