Nolan French

Higher Order Activities and Confidence in the Math Classroom

Inquiry Question: In what ways and to what extent does my focus on developing higher order
activities influence the confidence my students have with comprehending and applying
mathematical concepts in my classroom.

Background:
The idea for this project comes from the numeracy portion of the John G. Diefenbaker
High School “2021-2022 School Development Plan”. The development plan discusses creating
learning tasks with higher order thinking skills built into them in order to improve students’
confidence and ability when working with mathematical concepts. A session I attended early on
into PSIII with Vanessa Vakharia at the Calgary City Teachers’ Convention also pushed me
towards focusing on student confidence in the math classroom. She spoke about the
importance of confidence in the math classroom using her own life story to back it up. She went
from failing grade 11 math to now being known as the “Math Guru” simply because one of her
teachers focussed on Vanessa’s confidence. While the higher order aspect of the development
plan I felt would be useful for my own professional development. I felt going into this my ability
to develop activities involving higher order thinking skills, as well as using higher order
questioning in my teaching was something that I needed to improve on.
I find I can often get focused on just teaching the skills required to be successful with
the outcomes students are being assessed on. It is however also important to help the students
further their understanding of the mathematical concepts behind those skills. This is where it is
important to bring in higher order thinking. This can be as simple as adding a how or why to a
lower-level activity where they are practicing a skill. Having the students thinking about how or
why they are using a skill can “[push] a lower level task… into the higher level range” (Fennell,
Kobett and Wray, 2017, p.119). The higher order thinking allows the students to get a better
grasp of the concepts behind what they are doing, it also gives them a reason as to why we are
using the skills. If students understand the skills and the concepts they can “begin to view
mathematics as a way of thinking, not as rules and procedures” (Fiore and Lebar, 2017, p.14).
Being able to see math as a way of thinking will help them to develop their confidence with the
concepts themselves even if they are not successful with the procedures at first. The higher
order activities give the students the opportunity to also further develop their problem-solving
skills which is something they need outside of the math classroom.

Having confidence in the math classroom is very important to help students with being
able to successfully complete both the lower-level and higher-level activities as well as being
able to grasp the concepts being addressed in those activities. If a student is not confident
going into a problem, it can lead to them not putting in as much effort when faced with an
obstacle. On the other hand if a student has confidence it will help push them to overcome
obstacles they face when solving problems. The ability to overcome these obstacles will allow
students to be more successful. Ozcan and Kültür in their study on “The Relationship Between
Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy and Mathematics Test and Course Achievement in High
School Seniors” found that self-efficacy in the math classroom was a strong predictor of math
achievement. Another study done by Ayotola and Adedeji again on the relationship between
self-efficacy and achievement in the math classroom suggested that “[teachers] should find
ways of enhancing Mathematics Self- Efficacy in [students] and should place emphasis on
student's confidence to succeed in Mathematics achievement” (Ayotola and Adedeji, 2009,
p.1). Both of these studies show the importance of student confidence in the math classroom.
Confidence will not only allow students to be more willing to overcome any adversity they run
into, but it will also allow them to be more successful.
Process:
In order to address this topic in my classroom I incorporated two higher order learning
activities into the relations and functions unit. I then had students reflect on their confidence
throughout the unit.
I did this by giving students three different surveys throughout the unit. At the start of
the unit, I gave the students an extensive breakdown of what concepts we will be dealing with
throughout the unit. After the breakdown, I gave them the first survey asking them what their
confidence level is going into the unit. I then had students do a very similar survey after the first
activity which was about halfway through the unit. The last survey I gave to the students was
right at the end of the unit after now doing both activities. I was also constantly observing the
students during the unit focusing on how their confidence appeared to be, and made sure to
pay extra attention to how their confidence was impacted by the two higher order activities.

Higher Order Activities Used in the Classroom:

The following two activities were the two higher order activities that I gave to the students
during the relations and functions unit in hopes they would be able to improve the student’s
confidence in being able to succeed in the unit.
Graphing My Story Activity

Menu Math Activity

Surveys:
The students were given three surveys throughout the unit, one right at the start after the unit
overview, one about midway after doing the graphing my story activity, and the final one at the
end of the unit after doing the menu math activity.
Survey 1:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf_YV9S451gYhFKs4owZoe8TSbiJwctA9h6ZZBgebx
2KLPA_w/viewform?usp=sf_link
Survey 2:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScxU6C5lfZzIwY-
huyRxi_CDpW7oMOqYAadSJajDOuAvL250g/viewform?usp=sf_link
Survey 3:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebycbhzMlxZwxmCucBFWuMmGD_1Wz2_85-
DV7Asja4ixZ-tg/viewform?usp=sf_link
All three surveys asked the students “On a scale of 1 to 10 what is your confidence level at the
end of the unit? (10 being fully confident that you are going to achieve the proficiency level you
are hoping for. 1 being that you are not confident at all that you will be able to achieve the
proficiency level you are hoping for)”. This was the only question in survey 1. Survey 2 and 3
included a question asking about their confidence in this unit compared to past units, as well as
specific questions about the higher order activities. Survey 2 asks how the graphing my story
activity helped the students with their understanding, while survey 3 asked about the menu
math activity.
Survey Results:
Overall, I had 20 of my students who were able to take at least two of the surveys. Of
the 20 students six (30%) of them said their confidence stayed consistent throughout the unit,
five (25%) of those did start the unit with a lot of confidence so there was not much room for
the confidence to improve. Only three (15%) out of the 20 units said their confidence dropped a
bit throughout the unit. Lastly, a total of 11 out of the 20 students said their confidence
improved throughout the unit, meaning 55% of the students that participated in the surveys
showed an improvement in their confidence throughout the unit.

Survey 2’s question “Did the "Graphing my Story" Activity help improve your
understanding of Graphing? Why or why not?” had 20 responses. Four out of the 20 students
said it did not help, one of those 4 saying it “was too easy” and another saying they already
“know everything from science”. Another four out of the 20 students said it was somewhat
helpful. Lastly, 12 out of the 20 said they found it helpful. Two of those 12 specifically
mentioned they found it engaging and another two mentioned they found the activity
enjoyable.
Survey 3’s question “Did the Menu Math Activity help improve your understanding of
Slope, Domain and Range, graphing, and intercepts? Why or why not?” again had 20 responses.
This time only two students said they did not find it helpful. Four out of the 20 again said they
found it somewhat helpful. Lastly, a total of 14 out of the 20 said they found the activity to be
helpful. One of those 14 students specifically mentioned they enjoyed it because it “made
[them] think more critically” while another student said they found it helpful because they had
to “apply their knowledge”.
Observations/Conclusions:
Overall, my observations pretty closely lined up with the survey results. For starters it
seemed that these two higher order activities were the most engaging work the students did
throughout the unit. With this class in particular it can be tough getting them engaged with
work they are doing at their desks. Usually, the best way to get them engaged is to give them
an activity that requires them to get out of their desks. However, I found with both of these
activities, even though it was something they were sitting at their desks for, they were still
engaged and doing their work. This was especially true with the menu math activity which again
lines up with the survey results. With the Graphing my Story activity a few students were not
focused on it the entire time, I also had a bit of a tougher time collecting them from the
students. This however was not the case with the menu math for the most part they all seemed
to be enjoying it the entire time, I also was getting a lot more questions from the students
about this activity, showing how interested the students were with this activity. The part I
found the most useful about the menu math activity is it was beneficial for every student no
matter their level of understanding. For the students that were having trouble it allowed them
to just simply practice working with domain, range, slopes, and intercepts. On the other hand, it
had the stronger students doing all they could to minimize the number of graphs they created
in order to satisfy everything in the menu.
The aspect of these higher order activities that I feel benefits the student’s confidence
the most is how the difficulty of the activity is basically dependent on the student. With the
“Graphing my story” activity the students had the freedom to write any story they wanted then
graph the relation they created. So, a student that might not be the strongest could write a
simple story that could be graphed a bit easier allowing them to be successful. On the other
hand, a stronger student could challenge themselves by writing a more abstract story that
might be a bit more difficult to graph. This is similar to the menu math activity. A student that is
having a tough time understanding the concepts has the option to create a graph that satisfies
just one item if that is what allows them to grasp the concept and be successful. While a
student that is stronger can challenge themselves by minimizing the number of graphs they
have to create, which still boosts confidence if they can succeed with a challenging task. This is
the aspect of incorporating higher order thinking that I found to be the most important in
developing student confidence in the math classroom since every student is able to be
successful no matter the level of understanding they currently have.
Between the research I did going into the project and the results of the surveys along
with my observations, I now truly understand the importance of using higher order thinking in
the classroom. I have seen firsthand how impactful it can be with helping the students
understand the mathematical concepts which in turn helps them to improve their ability to
apply the skills required for that concept. Doing this project has also given me a better
understanding of how to both develop higher order activities and bring more higher order
questioning into my teaching. Going forward this is something I still want to continue to
improve on especially now that I have seen the impacts it can have on both the student’s
confidence and their success. I have given myself a foundation that I hope to be able to build
off of.

Resources:
Ayotola, A. and Adedeji, T., 2009. The relationship between mathematics self-efficacy
and achievement in mathematics. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1(1), pp.953-957.

CBE K-12 Mathematics Framework

John G Diefenbaker Development Plan (pg.6,7)

https://school.cbe.ab.ca/School/Repository/SBAttachments/5393c0c6-742f-49fa-ba03-
0ebb5bd5b78a_JGDSDPPlan2020-2023RevisedNov24-2021.pdf?web=1

Fennell, F., Kobett, B. and Wray, J., 2017. The formative 5. Thousand Oaks: Corwin
Mathematics.

Moving math: how to use thinking skills to help students make sense of mathematical
concepts and support numeracy development by, Fiore Mary; Lebar, Maria Luisa

Özcan, B. and Kültür, Y., 2021. The Relationship Between Sources of Mathematics Self-
Efficacy and Mathematics Test and Course Achievement in High School Seniors. SAGE Open,
11(3), p.215824402110401.