Rutgers University, USA
"Mathematical Engagement: The Conative Dimension"
Students engage mathematically for diverse reasons, which may vary from one occasion to another depending on features of their immediate situation. Engagement is a complex, multidimensional construct, often characterized as involving cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions. It involves an object of engagement on which attention is focused – e.g. a particular mathematical activity, or other people in the immediate environment. It may involve social interactions with a teacher, a tutor, or other students. Sometimes the very act of engagement is transgressive, involving the crossing of psychological or social boundaries, breaking barriers or flouting expectations. This theoretical talk focuses on a fourth dimension of mathematical engagement – the conative dimension, which encompasses the structures of individuals’ experienced needs, goals, desires, and meaningful purposes driving their engagement (or disengagement) with mathematics, and how these are (or are not) fulfilled. I shall endeavor to survey relevant constructs as they pertain to mathematical engagement – including the motivating desires and engagement structures described in some of my earlier work – and to connect the conative dimension of engagement with the creation and breaking of barriers associated specifically with mathematics.
Gerald A. Goldin is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Education, Mathematics, and Physics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His scientific research includes mathematical and theoretical advances in quantum theory and nonlinear systems, for which he received a Humboldt Research Prize. His educational research focuses on systems of representation in mathematical learning and problem solving, and on the affective domain and its influence on mathematical engagement. He has led several major, long-term grant-funded initiatives in mathematics and science education.