| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 科學教育研究所 === 102 === The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of reading historical mathematics stories as extracurricular activities on grade seven students’ learning behavior. The subjects were 32 seventh grade students in central Taiwan. This research expanded over a period of 9 weeks. Every Monday during the 9 weeks, a poster of an appropriately chosen historical mathematics story was posted on the bulletin board within the classroom. Also, every student was given a worksheet of questions concerning that week's poster's topic, encouraged to read the poster, and told that the worksheet needed to be collected by Friday. The grading of worksheets ranged from 0-20 points. This study implemented a one-group pretest-posttest design. The research vehicles included 3 items: other than previously mentioned 9 posters and their related worksheets, a mathematics learning attitude scale questionnaire and a deferring test were also conducted. Further analyses were based on collecting the scores of: mathematics learning attitude scale questionnaire pretest and posttest, every week's worksheet, deferring test, and six mathematics monthly exams. Attitude scale questionnaire pretest and posttest aimed to find out changes in learning attitudes towards mathematics, whereas the comparisons and analyses of worksheets, deferring test, and monthly exam scores aimed to understand students' ability to retain mathematical knowledge and learning behavior. Moreover, interviews were conducted with 3 groups of 2 students; groups were categorized into high, medium, and low levels based on their worksheet scores. This aimed to provide further understanding of whether reading historical mathematics stories as extracurricular activities could enhance students' motivation and attitudes towards mathematical learning.
The study showed the following three results. First, there were 3 apparent difficulties in implementing extracurricular reading activities: (1) collection of weekly worksheets were incomplete, (2) students showed little involvement and motivation, and (3) weekly worksheets scores fluctuated and showed no clear relationship. Second, some students showed improved attitudes towards mathematical learning, while most other students, whether they had reading habits or not, showed acceptance towards extracurricular reading activities. Last, analyses on the scores of weekly worksheets, deferring test, and monthly math exams showed that extracurricular reading activities indeed helped enhance some students' learning behavior; this result was especially sigificant with students who had had better learning attitudes and achievements in mathematical learning.
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