Class lessons on why maths matters made students value it more

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   1,916 ninth-graders from 82 classes in 25 schools in Germany took part. They were about 15 on average, and just over half were girls.

2. 02

   What they did

   Each class had a 90-minute lesson on why maths matters, then a personal task. One group read six quotes from young adults about maths and rated how relevant each was to them. The other group wrote its own reasons, and both groups did two short homework tasks over four weeks.

3. 03

   What happened

   Compared with the waiting classes, both lessons raised how useful students found maths at both times. Reading quotes also raised how much students cared about doing well, and later how much they enjoyed maths. Writing lessons raised only how useful maths seemed, and neither lesson changed the overall downsides students saw in maths.

What the study found

1. Helped

   Students who read quotes rated maths as more useful than the waiting group, at six weeks and five months.

   • Action: Read about someone facing the same problemtested

   Large randomised trial of 1,916 ninth-grade students in Germany · vs students still waiting for their lesson · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people; summary claims more than the results show

2. Helped

   Students who wrote why maths mattered rated it as more useful than the waiting group, at both times.

   • Action: List the benefits of finishingtested

   Large randomised trial of 1,916 ninth-grade students in Germany · vs students still waiting for their lesson · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people; summary claims more than the results show

3. Helped

   Students who read quotes cared more about doing well at both times, and enjoyed maths more five months on.

   • Action: Read about someone facing the same problemtested

   Large randomised trial of 1,916 ninth-grade students in Germany · vs students still waiting for their lesson · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people; summary claims more than the results show

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