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Running head: THE EFFECTS OF CHOICE IN MATH

The Effects of Choice in Math on Overall Attitude and Student Achievement

Jared McCutchen
University of Wisconsin- La Crosse
Online Community Three

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Abstract
This study investigated the effects of choice in math on overall attitude and student
achievement. The participants in this study included 17 third grade students from ages
8-9. Students participated in a presurvey, journal responses, and a standardized
assessment. Students journal responses showed they enjoyed math choice time and
standardized assessment scores were higher compared to my previous classes. This
suggests students enjoyed and benefited from having choice in math.

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Effects of Choice in Math on Overall Attitude and Student Achievement

Classroom teachers are continuously thinking of many different techniques to use
in their classrooms so that they can reach the needs of all students. Often teachers are
pressed to focus more on standards than best teaching practices in the classroom. As
academic standards become more rigorous, the time to create creative lessons and give
students time to explore and grow more academically independent becomes less and less.
Ottmar, Rimm-Kaufman, Larsen, and Merritt (2011) agree that it is not only about
preparing teachers how to teach all the standards,
However, solely focusing on increasing the amount of pedagogical content
knowledge teachers hold without helping teachers understand how to translate
their knowledge and create classroom environments which foster higher quality
instructional practices is unlikely to improve teacher quality or raise student
achievement (p. 2).
I took this quote to heart when thinking about what I could do to in my classroom to
foster higher quality instructional practices while raising student achievement.
Over the past couple years of getting to know our district math curriculum well, I
began to think to myself, do my students enjoy the way Im teaching math? Is there
anything I can do to make math more exciting for them to learn? How can I meet all the

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standards, teach the curriculum, and make sure students are enjoying and learning math
all at the same time? Therefore, I decided to consult the literature to see what the
effect of choice might have on my students attitudes and achievement in math class.

Review Of Literature

Students are motivated when they believe they are able to succeed at a given task
and when they understand and value the outcome of the task (Brophy, 2013, p.18)
Brophy believes that when given choice in the classroom, students will be motivated
because they can choose the option they are comfortable with to be successful. Brophy
also addresses the need to focus on achieving success rather than avoiding failure. When
students are successful, that success should be attributed to their ability and effort. Any
failures should be attributed to a lack of relevant information and/or effort, but not to a
lack of ability (p. 41).
Giving homework choice has been an experiment teachers have used in the
classroom also. According to Patall, Cooper, and Wynn, (2010),
The effectiveness and relative importance of choice in the classroom overall and
in line with self-determination theory, results suggested that providing students
with choices among homework tasks effectively enhanced motivational and
performance outcomes and that choice is an important component to creating a
classroom environment supportive of autonomy and intrinsic motivation

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(p. 910).
The authors go on to say that it was also clear that these benefits were not gained without
cost. That is, providing multiple homework options for every homework assignment
placed an additional burden on the teachers who had to design, distribute, and collect
these assignments. Giving students choice makes a lot of extra work for the teacher but
will be very beneficial to the students.
David Suarez, (2007), took a unique approach at giving his students choice in his
math class. Suarez implemented tiered choice activities in his classroom. This would
enable students to study the same content at different levels of challenge Suarez finds that
both students who have a history of stellar achievement in math class and students who
start with more basic skills feel comfortable with the tiered system. Suarez says Students
benefit from the opportunity to make decisions. Learning to reflect on personal learning
and adjust tasks accordingly is a great skill for any aged student (p. 61).
In the book The classroom of choice: Giving students what they need and getting
what you want. author Jonathon C. Erwin says to be an effective teacher when
implementing choice in the classroom, teachers must be effective managers. Teachers
manage the learning space, time, materials, and the mental, physical, and emotional states
of individuals, partners, small groups, and large groups (pg. 5). Daniels (1994) echos
Erwin and states that for teachers to have the most success when offering students
choices in the classroom, teachers have to be over prepared. Thinking about time, space,
and materials are just a few aspects that goes into getting ready to offer choice (p. 13).
Glasser (1986) also says that managing the classroom effectively when giving choice
will help students become more responsible and accountable (p.88).

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McCombs and Whisler (1997) talk about how choice is very beneficial in the
classroom. Before offering different choices the teacher must know the students well to
know what type of choices to offer. The learner-centered perspective begins with a
focus on knowing and understanding each learner in the context of a deep understanding
of the learning process itself (p. 6).
Math talk in the classroom is also very important when students are working
collaboratively during math choice time. Chapin, O'Connor, O'Connor, and Anderson,
(2009) talk about how important math talk is saying that when students are using math
language without being prompted by a teacher it helps the teacher recognize their level of
understanding. When students worked together during math choice time I heard a lot of
math vocabulary words being used that they had learned in previous math lessons.
Edens and Potter (2013), suggests that giving students choice during math and
allowing them to work collaboratively encourages math talk. Students who often worked
in pairs or in a small groups could better explain their thinking aloud (p. 241). Edens and
Ellen said seeing students chose the same activity and work together built relationships
that were not seen before in the classroom. Students found out they had something in
common they would not have know if the different choices werent available.

Not all research supports giving students choice in the classroom. Kevin Perks
Crafting effective choices to motivate students, says research in the past decade has
revealed that choice is not necessarily a cure-all for lackluster motivation. While choice
can be a powerful motivator, on some occasions it can also have an adverse effect. In
other words, not all choices have a positive effect on motivation and achievement (p. 2).

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Perks (2010) says there are four things every teacher should consider when they are
giving students choice in the classroom: Whom will students work with? What content
will students work with? When will students need to complete specific tasks? Where will
students work? When a teacher answers these questions you can have a positive affect on
student motivation. Perks (2010) believes that when promoting student decision making,
it is important to remember that some of the most motivating choices are those that
promote feelings of control, competence, and purpose.

After reading many articles on this topic I have concluded that giving choice to
students in the classroom is a great way to build community and responsibility. Many of
the articles mentioned positive results from giving students choice, but also mentioned
that there is a lot of preparation and time that goes into getting different choices ready for
students. Its not something that you can just decide to do a day ahead of time and roll it
out to the students. It will take well planned lessons to make the choice time be effective
in the classroom.
Methodology
Participants
This study took place in a third grade classroom in a rural, western Wisconsin,
elementary school, with grades pre-kindergarten to fifth and a population of 208 students.
The participants in this study were 17 third grade students from ages eight to nine years
old. The group consisted of nine girls and eight boys and all students were white. There
were no special needs students in my study. The group was chosen because they were
students in my classroom during the 2013-2014 school year.

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Procedure
The purpose of this study was to observe how giving students choice in math
would affect students attitude towards math and overall math achievement. I began my
research in March of 2014 starting with a pre-survey of students thoughts and feelings
towards math. Thereafter students participated in a math choice time where two to three
times a week students were offered four to five different math activities to work on
individually, with a partner, or in a small group. The choices offered to students were
usually a review activity, math game, fact practice, and an investigation activity that
would require higher-level thinking. I would also pull students over to work with me in a
small group setting on a math activity I choose to work on with them. After every math
choice time in which students participated, students took a short survey and created a
math journal entry on how they felt about choice time that day. Three weeks before
school ended the students in my classroom took the district standardized math test and I
compared those scores with their scores from earlier in the school year as well as with
previous years scores. I also took many anecdotal records every time the students
participated in math choice to keep track of what went well, which students worked well
together, and what I could do to improve the next math choice time.
Research Design
I collected several sources of data throughout my research. My data collection
tools were designed to help me see if my students were learning and enjoying math
choice time. Data collection tools included (a) presurvey, (b) math journal entries, and
(c) STAR testing results.

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Presurveys. Students were asked to complete a pre-survey (see Appendix A)
about their feelings towards math in general. They were to draw a smiley face for good,
a straight face for OK, and an upside down face for not so good. The pre survey
asked five questions: (a) Question 1: This is how I feel about math, (b) Question 2: This
is how I feel about working with a partner or a group, (c) Question 3: This is how I feel
about working by myself, (d) Question 4: This is how I feel about solving number stories,
(e) Question 5: This is how I feel about finding new ways to solve problems.
Math Journals. Students were asked to journal (see Appendix B) for the last five
minutes of math choice time. The journal had questions prompts for the students: (a)
Question 1: What did you work on during math choice today? (b) Question 2: Did you
work together with anyone today? If so, who? (c) Question 3: How did you improve your
math skills today? (d) Question 4: How did you feel about the different choices offered
today? (e) Question 5: How did you feel about regular math class today? Both questions
four and five had a smiley face, straight face, and sad face for students to choose from.
All of the other questions required written responses. I chose these questions so that I
would know if the students were enjoying math choice time and to keep track of the
students choices. I collected the journals after every math choice time and kept data on
the responses from the students.
STAR Testing Results. Part of what we use for our district assessment for math is
called the STAR test. This is a computer-based test where students answer 32 math
questions. Each question is timed and the students also have the option to listen to each
question read to them through the computer. The questions asked of the students are
based on how they are doing on the assessment. The more questions the student gets

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correct, the more difficult the questions become. The assessment tries to level out to see
what the students true math abilities are. I used my classrooms STAR scores to compare
how they did from the first STAR test of the school year to final test of the year. I also
compared the average score increase in term three for my class this year to last years
class.
Results

Presurveys
I gave each student a pre-survey on his or her thoughts and feelings towards math.
I gave the surveys out one day before I started math choice time in my classroom. Nine of
17 students (53%) answered good for the question This is how I feel about math. The
other eight students (47%) all answered, OK for question one. Fifteen of my 17
students (88%) answered good for the question This is how I feel about working with
a partner or in a group. The other two students (12%) answered OK. For the question
This is how I feel about working by myself, 13 students (76%) answered good, two
students (12%) answered OK, and two students (12%) answered not so good. Six
students (35%) answered OK, five students (30%) answered good, and six students
(35%) answered not so good, for the question This is how I feel about solving number
stories. For the question This is how I feel about finding new ways to solve problems,
14 students (82%) answered good and three students (18%) answered OK.
Math Journals
Students completed a short math journal entry after every math choice time. I
collected 187 journal entries in total. The first question in the journal asked, What did

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you work on during math choice time today? Seventy-nine entries (42%) said they
worked on multiplication, 51 entries (27%) said they worked on the laptops, 21 entries
(11%) said they worked on telling time, 19 entries (10%) said they worked on division,
and 17 entries (9%) said they worked on an investigation. The second question asked,
Did you work together with anyone today during math choice time? Of the 187 entries
140 (75%) said yes, and the remaining 47 (25%) said no. The students were also
offered a smiley face, straight face, and upside down face to show how they felt about the
choices offered during math choice time that day. Of those choices, 171 of the 187 entries
(91%) circled the smiley face, 14 entries (7%) circled the straight face, and three entries
(2%) circled the upside down face. The same choices were offered for the question How
did you feel about regular math class today? One hundred eight of the 187 entries (58%)
circled the smiley face, 51 of the 187 entries (27%) circled the straight face, and 28 of the
187 entries (15%) circled the upside down face.

STAR Testing Results

The students in my class went up an average of 41 points (+1.6 grade level
equivalency) on the STAR math test from the fall of 2013 to the spring of 2014. The
average score increase in term three in 2014 was 24 points.

Discussion
I began my action research study questioning the effect that choice during math
time might have on students attitude and math achievement. The results of the study
show that math choice is useful for both students attitude towards math and overall math

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achievement. The pre-survey, student journals, and STAR test results all verified my own
impression that my math class was improved by the incorporation of giving choice in
math.
Presurvey
The presurveys showed that over half my students felt good about math before I had even
started offering math choice in my classroom. I was also not surprised that most of the
students said they enjoyed working with a partner. Many of the students (70%) did not
overly enjoy working on story problems based on the presurvey and I think that my
students lower reading ability as a whole contributed to this high percentage. They
struggled on story problems last year and it had a lot to do with them getting frustrated
reading. I often found myself reading the story problems to them so this high number on
the presurvey did not surprise me.
Journal Entries
My study showed that only 58% of the journal entries answered with a smiley
face for how they felt about the regular math lesson that day. In contrast, 91% of the
students answered with a smiley face that they enjoyed the choices they were offered
during math choice that day. This tells me that students had a more positive attitude about
being able to choose what they wanted to do during math versus only having a teacher
lead math lesson that day.
Based on the journal entries, I also found that most students,75% of the entries,
enjoyed working collaboratively with others. Giving them the choice to work with others

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had a positive effect on students attitude towards math. This showed me that I not only
need to continue offering working together during math choice, but also offer it more
during my daily math lessons.
STAR Assessment
Overall, math choice time proved to be beneficial on the STAR math assessment as well.
The class made significant gains in term three. I did offer choices tailored to what I knew
my students needed the most. The choices offered matched many of the items tested on
the STAR math test. This in turn may also have been a reason why my students scores
increased more this year than my classes did last year.
Limitations
There were some limitations present in this study. First of all, I feel it is hard to
tell how serious third graders are when they take a survey. I feel most students answer a
survey based more on what they think the teacher would want them to answer. I also felt
students sometimes rushed through the math journals so they may not always be
completed 100% accurately. I also feel like it would be more beneficial if I could have
compared the STAR test results with more than just one year, but our district did not
have additional years data with which to compare.. It would be interesting to see how
effective math choice might be if had more STAR data from previous years.
Conclusions and Implications
I conducted my research with the aim of discovering the effects of giving students
choice in math on students attitude and achievement in math. With the data I collected

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through the study, I feel that I can conclude that my students overall attitude towards
math increased. I also feel that I do not have enough data over the past couple years to be
able to conclude if math choice had a major effect on students overall achievement in
math.
I also found that giving students choice in math helped me get some extra time to
work one-on-one with students who needed the extra support. I was able to offer the
choices, let the students begin, and then pull aside a couple students for extra support.
Another interesting observation I had was that students generally worked on
concepts they needed practice on the most. I never told the students exactly what they had
to work on. I gave them four to five choices and they usually selected something that
would be beneficial for them. I was surprised that students challenged themselves when
they had the choice to do so.
I will continue using math choice in my classroom. I have also shared this
experience with my colleagues, and some of them are going to try it in their classroom as
well! Our district is also leaning towards using a math workshop approach for our
elementary curriculum, which offers more choice in the classroom also.
Action Plan
This action research study showed me that giving students choice in math could
be very beneficial in any classroom. I will continue giving students choice not only in
math, but also during my daily writing and reading lessons. I will also collaborate with
other district elementary teachers to see how they are offering choice in their classrooms.

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I also plan on creating a math workshop in my classroom that will offer choice daily
instead of only a couple times a week.

References
Brophy, J. E. (2013). Motivating students to learn. Routledge.

Chapin, S. H., O'Connor, C., O'Connor, M. C., & Anderson, N. C. (2009). Classroom
discussions: Using math talk to help students learn, Grades K-6. Math Solutions.

Daniels, H. (1994). Literature circles: Voice and choice in the student-centered

classroom. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Edens, K. M., & Potter, E. F. (2013). An exploratory look at the relationships among
math skills, motivational factors and activity choice. Early Childhood
Education Journal, 41(3), 235-243.
Erwin, J. C. (2004). The classroom of choice: Giving students what they need and getting
what you want. ASCD.

Glasser, W. (1986). Choice theory in the classroom. Perennial Library/Harper & Row
Publishers.

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Hawthorne, R. K. (1992). Curriculum in the making: Teacher choice and the classroom
experience. Teachers College Press.

McCombs, B. L., & Whisler, J. S. (1997). The Learner-Centered Classroom and School:
Strategies for Increasing Student Motivation and Achievement. The Jossey-Bass
Education Series. Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 350 Sansome St., San Francisco,
CA 94104.

Ottmar, E. R., Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., Larsen, R., & Merritt, E. G. (2011). Relations
between Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching, Mathematics Instructional
Quality, and Student Achievement in the Context of the" Responsive Classroom
(RC)" Approach. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness.

Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Wynn, S. R. (2010). The effectiveness and relative
importance of choice in the classroom. Journal of Educational Psychology,
102(4), 896.

Perks, K. (2010). Crafting effective choices to motivate students. Adolescent Literacy in

Perspective, 2, 2-15.

Suarez, D. (2007). When students choose the challenge. Educational Leadership, 65(3),
60.

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Appendix A

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Appendix B

Math Journal

What did you work on during math choice time today?

_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________
Did you work together with anyone? If so, who?

_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________
How did you improve your math skills today?

_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________
How did you feel about the different choices today?

How did you feel about regular math class today?