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"Harry Potter‘s Author Effect": Interest yields high achievement, career goals do not
Do motivated students learn more? Yes and no. As with Harry Potter’s author Ms. JK Rowling, interest yields high achievement, career goals do not. Students interested in mathematics learn more mathematics, but students who study mathematics to get a better job do not, according to a recent study published in the journal of Learning and Instruction. Thus, parents and teachers can enthusiastically talk about mathematics in daily life to interest children in mathematics and help them learn more.
Motivations and Mathematics Learning in 41 Countries
Professor CHIU Ming Ming and Ms. ZENG Xihua, at CUHK’s Department of Educational Psychology, examined how different types of motivation affected students’ mathematics learning based on data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (OECD-PISA) collected 107,975 fifteen-year-olds’ mathematics test scores and questionnaire responses (for 41 countries and regions; Hong Kong sample size: 2,438).
Hong Kongstudents ranked 2nd in interest in mathematics and 37th in job-related motivation out of 41 countries. Students interested in mathematics learn more mathematics, but students who study mathematics to get a better job do not.
|
Behavior |
Impact on math score |
|
Learn math to get a better job |
None |
|
Interest in math ↑ 10% |
+1% |
|
Family annual income ↑ HK$11,223 |
+1% |
Students who are 10% more interested in mathematics score 1% higher in mathematics on average, about the same effect as a family earning HK$11,223 more per year. Interest in mathematics does not differ by family socio-economic status. Students from richer families are not more interested in mathematics than students from poorer families.
Recommendations for parents and teachers
1) Chat with children about mathematics in their daily life
2) Show how useful mathematics ideas are
3) Enthusiastically talk about mathematics
Examples:
‧If you want to buy this computer game in 3 weeks, how much money should you save each week?
‧How should we arrange our living room furniture to create the most open space?
‧Which made more money in the last 5 years? HSBC stock or a 5 year CD?
‧Do you think a person's height is related to the length of his/her shadow?
