Responsive Pedagogy and Student Learning: Feedback practice and student learning in Mathematics

This paper share for discussion the framework, research design and some preliminary results of a large research project; “Responsive teaching and Student Learning in Mathematics” (RespMath). The project is contextualised in lower secondary school in Norway; 40 Norwegian 9th-grade classes (student age 14-15) in 10 schools and includes about 1000 students and 40 teachers. The project is quasi-experimental with a comparison group similar to the experiemental group (1000 students and 40 teachers). In the project, a comprehensive definition of student learning which includes achievements, self-regulation skills and confidence in the ability to learn, defined as self-efficacy, all of which relate to motivation for schooling. The main goal of the project is to examine the relationship between responsive pedagogy, defined as feedback practice, and students’ learning in Mathematics, defined as achievements, self-regulation skills and selfefficacy. A pilot study for the student questionnaire was conducted in May 2016, involving 10 classes (n=198 pupils). Preliminary analysis of the data suggests that the way the teacher gives feedback to the learner has an emotional aspect by influencing degree of “fear of mathematics” (anxiety) to students (r=-.47, p