Persevering toward What? Investigating the Relationship between Ninth-grade Students’ Achievement Goals and Perseverant Actions on an Algebraic Task

Joseph DiNapoli

doi:10.29333/iejme/5747

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Joseph DiNapoli ¹ ^*

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¹ Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Perseverance is vital for the process of learning mathematics with understanding. To do so, students must wrestle with obstacles and amend their problem-solving plan when necessary. I collected qualitative data to investigate the nature of perseverance for 11 ninth-grade algebra students working on a challenging task for which they affirmed interest. Employing analytical frameworks of achievement goal perceptions and subsequent perseverant actions, the findings inform three distinct profiles of in-the-moment perseverance states. These profiles suggest that perseverant actions are not always aligned with students’ goals of meaning-making. Although students may report being motivated by building conceptual understanding, they may not fully grasp what it means to achieve such mastery goals. I provide suggestions for teachers to further encourage the development of more perseverant learners.

Keywords

perseverance
achievement goals
algebraic task
problem-solving

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 14, Issue 3, October 2019, 435-453

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5747

Publication date: 02 Apr 2019

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How to cite this article

APA

DiNapoli, J. (2019). Persevering toward What? Investigating the Relationship between Ninth-grade Students’ Achievement Goals and Perseverant Actions on an Algebraic Task. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 14(3), 435-453. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5747

Vancouver

DiNapoli J. Persevering toward What? Investigating the Relationship between Ninth-grade Students’ Achievement Goals and Perseverant Actions on an Algebraic Task. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2019;14(3):435-53. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5747

AMA

DiNapoli J. Persevering toward What? Investigating the Relationship between Ninth-grade Students’ Achievement Goals and Perseverant Actions on an Algebraic Task. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2019;14(3), 435-453. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5747

Chicago

DiNapoli, Joseph. "Persevering toward What? Investigating the Relationship between Ninth-grade Students’ Achievement Goals and Perseverant Actions on an Algebraic Task". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2019 14 no. 3 (2019): 435-453. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5747

Harvard

DiNapoli, J. (2019). Persevering toward What? Investigating the Relationship between Ninth-grade Students’ Achievement Goals and Perseverant Actions on an Algebraic Task. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 14(3), pp. 435-453. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5747

MLA

DiNapoli, Joseph "Persevering toward What? Investigating the Relationship between Ninth-grade Students’ Achievement Goals and Perseverant Actions on an Algebraic Task". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 14, no. 3, 2019, pp. 435-453. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/5747