Hypothesis

Students will be more likely to value mathematics, to be more interested in math, to consider themselves more competent in math, and to improve in their math performance if they more clearly recognize the usefulness of mathematics to their own lives and goals (aka: utility value).

Student population

The experiment focused on Algebra 1 workspaces. Over 13,000 students in over 500 schools participated in the study.

Intervention

Before starting six workspaces, students in the intervention condition received an activity which asked them to watch a utility-value video in which students explained how the math topic they were about to learn is used in their lives (for example, "going viral" on social media in a workspace on exponential functions). Three example applications of mathematics were presented. Students were asked to pick the one that they agreed with most and to write, in their own words, why that example resonated with them and how they might use math in their own lives.

Two workspaces were inserted into MATHia (before and after the workspaces presenting the utility-value videos). These workspaces served as pre- and post-tests and asked both math questions covering all of the topics addressed in the study and short surveys relating to utility value and self-efficacy.

Design

All students completed the pre- and post-test workspaces. At each of the six utility-value workspaces, students were randomly chosen to either receive the utility-value intervention or not. Each student in the experiment could have completed from 0-6 utility-value activities.

Outcome measures

The study measured performance in mathematics, including both pre- and post-test performance and more general performance in MATHia. In addition, the study looked at student responses to the utility-value and interest questionnaires.