Psychology of Affect -7-
In order to escape the difficulty
experienced in the classification of components that affect mathematics; in a
simple continuum where only two variables that are considered like attitude and
mathematical performance, as well as avoid the difficulty in measuring these
variables in this simple continuum, we need to use a different model. McLeod’s
(1992) model uses a three dimensional approach. Apart from defining concepts,
it maps diverse levels of stability to these concepts depending on their
nature. The three basic concepts that have been used in this model include:
emotion, attitude and beliefs. While emotion is considered to be most strong,
most affective and one that is least stable, Beliefs is considered to have most
effect on cognition, most stable and weakest in intensity. Attitudes on the
other hand are somewhere in the middle. In social psychology however, a
different approach is used where attitude has been broken down to emotion,
behavior and beliefs. Both of these models are used in the evaluation of
affect’s role in learning mathematics, hence the need to adopt a possible
common approach. Nevertheless, these models can help us picture the
relationship between mathematics and emotion.
It
is quite difficult to establish the relationship between mathematics and
emotion without considering the motivational aspect. One reason for this is the
embedment of mathematics in nearly all areas of our lives. The result is that
at one point or another, we have been faced with the task of exploiting all our
energy to learn mathematics. In this endeavor, we have sough internal as well
as external motivation to grasp mathematics. Mathematics has been inescapable
particularly because; we almost all need to orient to it in order to achieve
our goals. As we had seen, our system has a way of prioritizing and organizing
corrective plans intended to rectify a prevailing circumstance as we seek to
achieve our goals. However, considering that learning mathematics may not
really be one of those most urgent priorities; and may still face disturbance
from other needs that will arise, the process of self regulation would be of
more importance in mathematical motivation. This would be elaborated shortly.
Two
approaches have torn researchers as they have strived to psychologically
analyze man. There is the social approach on one hand that considers the aspect
of; non personal mathematical experiences, emphasizing on shared experiences
(Hannula, 2000). This is a logical approach taking into account that
mathematical knowledge has been built over many generations that have shared
their experiences. On the other hand, we also need to consider how individuals
think by themselves in relation to mathematics. An approach that can therefore
be of aid to us will involve integrating the following areas: Cognitive,
emotion, motivation (Hannula, 2000). By considering self regulation, I believe
that it is possible to integrate the following areas as well as merge the
social and the personal aspects of learning mathematics; at least to some extent.
In
order to understand how these areas interact, observing man as a system that
has self regulating capabilities would therefore be an appropriate approach.
According to Zimmerman & Campillo (2003), self regulation can be described
as the process of acquiring a thinking pattern, adopting some feelings, and a
behavior in order achieve intended goals. Boekaerts (1999) has proposed a three
concept kind of model in the study of self regulation: an innermost layer that
considers taken cognitive styles which in turn determine control of the kind of
processing style, a middle layer that considers the use of skills, cognition
loops, as well as knowledge to control learning, an outermost layer that
concerns with the application of chosen goals and available resources to
control the individual.
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