Students’ resistance to learning mathematics through investigations

This paper explores students’ resistance when they were expected by their teacher to start learning mathematics through investigations, a pedagogy that emphasizes an active and agentic approach to learning in contrast to the traditional transmission-based teaching to which they were accustomed. This resistance is investigated from the perspectives of six 14-year-old girls, in a Year 10 top set all-female class of 19 students, who continued to resist this pedagogical change throughout the scholastic year. Desiring to gain insights on the implementation of mathematical investigations with this class, the teacher decided at the start of the scholastic year to draw on qualitative case study methodology and to collect data from multiple sources. The phenomenon of student resistance was consequently explored using data from: (i) the teacher’s reflective journal; and (ii) students’ learning journals and interviews. Thematic analysis of the data suggests that students could continue resisting a new pedagogical approach should they perceive it to be in conflict with their expectations, feelings and aspirations. Suggestions follow on how pedagogies that run counter to students’ encultured ways of learning, such as investigations in this study, can be introduced in class in ways that are less likely to be resisted by students.