Interest-driven video creation for learning mathematics

For students learning mathematics, the mastery of mathematical problem-solving is essential. Hence, mathematical problem-solving skills are regarded as a measure of mathematics knowledge for many students. Mathematical problem-solving skills are also defined as one of the most important mathematics skills. Moreover, developing effective problem solvers is a primary goal for K-12 mathematics instruction according to the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics [National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) 2000].

In previous studies, the relationships among learning attitudes, interest, anxiety, and outcomes have been demonstrated. Harackiewicz et al. (2008) found that students’ learning attitudes were positively related to learning interest. Interest is a significant predictor of student achievement in mathematics (Schiefele and Csikszentmihalyi 1995). Krapp (1999) also emphasized that a lack of interest leads to low performance. Schraw et al. (2001) reviewed the history of interest research and found that learning interest influenced students’ learning performance. Moreover, Harackiewicz and Hulleman (2010) claimed that being interested in a topic leads to better outcomes. The findings of the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) survey indicated that achievement in mathematics was positively related to learning interest (Mullis et al. 2016). Jansen et al. (2016) also highlighted that students with greater interest showed higher achievement in mathematics. These findings indicate that there are a correlation between attitudes and interest and a correlation between interest and outcomes. In addition, Wu et al. (2012) found that mathematics anxiety has a negative impact on math achievement. Moreover, students' low interest and negative attitudes can lead to anxiety and then generate low performance (Aksu and Bikos 2002). However, the findings of Yu and Singh (2018) showed a nonsignificant relationship between interest and mathematics performance. The finding of Wong and Wong (2019) could account for the inconsistent results of related findings. They found that interest is not significantly related to mathematics performance for high-achieving students, but interest has a significant, positive relationship with mathematics performance for low-achieving students. High-achieving students might still study hard even when they have low interest. The TIMSS results also showed that a percentage of low-achieving students had negative attitudes and low interest in mathematics. Hence, finding ways to improve the students’ learning attitudes and interests and the achievements of students with decreasing anxiety is an educational issue that is worthy of investigation, particularly to help low-achieving students.

Teachers’ approaches to teaching have an impact on students’ interest in and attitudes toward learning (Savelsbergh et al. 2016). However, in traditional mathematics classroom instruction, teachers commonly adopt a teacher-directed approach. For example, Menegale (2008) found that teachers dominate the discussion time in class and that all students receive the same information from the teacher when he/she addresses the entire class at the same time. Battista (1999) observed that school mathematics involves an endless sequence of memorizing and forgetting facts and procedures that, from the students’ perspective, make little sense to them. Students only learn by rote and use a few techniques that their teachers teach them to answer questions (Menegale 2008). Lerkkanen et al. (2012) also emphasized that teacher-directed instruction activities are not flexible; they engage students in rote activities, provide fewer opportunities for students to develop interpersonal skills, and do not engage students in conversation.

Recently, a growing number of researchers have focused on student-centered learning employing video and technology in efforts to reduce the learning problems mentioned above. For example, researchers have indicated how video instruction can be adapted to students’ individual learning needs (Hoogerheide et al. 2014; Ouwehand et al. 2015; Pan et al. 2012). Moreover, researchers and teachers have combined video instruction and video creation to engage students in creating videos in K-12 and higher education (Schuck and Kearney 2006; Henderson et al. 2010; Palmgren-Neuvonen and Korkeamäki 2014). This approach requires students to communicate, reflect on their understandings, and make their understandings visible to others. It also provides new opportunities and challenges in mathematics education (Engin 2014; Hulsizer 2016).

Additionally, interest-driven creator (IDC) theory (Chan et al. 2015; Wong et al. 2015; Chan et al. 2018) suggests that the design of any learning activity should consider how students’ interest in a creation activity can be nurtured. It has been increasingly emphasized that students learn according to what they are interested in and thereby actively participate in learning. Kong and Li (2016) also found that, if students are interested in academic topics, their learning is enhanced. When students are motivated to learn about their interests for creation, they develop their own learning abilities and habits and create new knowledge or artifacts through repetitive learning activities to become lifelong creators. IDC theory proposes a framework with three anchored concepts (interest, creation, and habit) of learning design, and it suggests that the use of the framework with the appropriate instructional method and technological support can develop students’ interest in and learning of academic topics (Chan et al. 2018). Moreover, to reduce the complexity of activity design, IDC theory provides designers with these three anchored concepts to design a learning activity at the macro-level. When further experimentation and investigation are conducted, each anchored concept incorporates several subcomponent concepts at the micro-level to support students’ learning (Chan et al. 2018).

To enrich and implement IDC theory design in mathematics, the purpose of the present study was to develop an interest-driven video creation learning activity by adopting a creation loop model of IDC theory. In addition, Kuo et al. (2012) emphasized that low-achieving students require sufficient one-to-one support from their teachers or peers to experience in-depth cognitive development, and they found that using the cognitive apprenticeship strategies (Collins et al. 1989) could promote both high- and low-achieving students’ problem-solving skills. In this study, six cognitive apprenticeship strategies were used as subcomponent concepts of the creation loop model to guide students to improve their mathematical problem-solving skills and to collaborate with peers. To improve both high- and low-achieving students’ learning attitudes, interest, and achievement with decreasing anxiety, video creation and computer technologies have been employed as learning tools to enhance students’ learning attitudes and interest. The study is based on the assumption that, for both high- and low-achieving students, engagement as creators in video creation activities might promote not only their mathematical problem-solving skills but also their interest in learning. Thus, the study evaluates students’ mathematics learning achievement, attitudes, anxiety, and thoughts in elementary mathematics classrooms.

This section describes the design of the interest-driven video creation learning activity, the learning process, and the supporting strategies in this study. The findings of a study by Kearney and Schuck (2005) revealed that the student-created videos task facilitated students’ extrinsic interests (e.g., creating and presenting videos) and further extended their interests to the topic, so we adopted the interest loop model of IDC theory, which is composed of three components, namely, triggering, immersing, and extending, in a circular process to promote students’ interest in a learning activity. Students’ initial interest can be triggered by stimulating their curiosity. This goal can be achieved by emphasizing the relation between incoming new information and the students' existing prior knowledge, which will motivate students to learn the relation (Kong and Li 2016). To maintain students’ interest, students must engage in a learning activity that allows full immersion, which requires a clear learning goal, feedback, and an appropriate challenge level of the task. To extend student interest, students must reengage with the learning activity so that they can integrate knowledge from different perspectives or include tasks that go beyond the current level. Hence, based on the interest loop model, in this study, the new idea of creating their own tutorial videos triggered students’ initial interest. The new experience of indirectly teaching their peers through the creation of a video excited them and drew their attention. With the clear goal of creating videos and by maintaining an appropriate challenge level in the process through scaffolding, students became immersed in the activity. Finally, collaboration among peers provided the students with opportunities for reflecting, sharing, and integrating ideas, ultimately extending their ability to create videos and their mathematics knowledge.

The design of the learning activity, which was based on the creation loop model of IDC theory, included two types of creation activities: an individual creation loop and a group creation loop. Each creation loop contained three components: imitating, combining, and staging. The six cognitive apprenticeship strategies were adopted as subcomponent concepts of the three components of the creation loop model to support students’ mathematics learning. According to this design, the students were encouraged to imitate others through observation to develop their initial ideas and knowledge and then to combine their own ideas with others’ ideas to develop their own new knowledge, learning strategies or artifacts. Finally, the students were asked to present, demonstrate, and reflect on what they had created. When the students participated in a creative activity, their learning interest and domain knowledge were expected to be enhanced.

The interest-driven video creation learning activity follows a five-step learning process, and the steps of the learning activity and supporting strategies used in this study are shown in Table 1. The individual creation loop is composed of the first three activity steps (learning from tutorial videos, solving a similar problem, and sharing ideas) to help students to create their own concepts and mathematical problem-solving strategies. The group creation loop is composed of the last two activity steps (creating videos and demonstrating as a group) to help groups to collaboratively create their artifacts. Additionally, the scaffolding needed by the students is provided according to the various activity steps.

This study aimed to develop an interest-driven video creation learning activity and evaluate students’ mathematics learning achievement, attitudes, anxiety, and thoughts. The findings of this study are as follows:

1. The interest-driven video creation learning activity facilitated elementary students’ learning, especially their mathematical problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and filmmaking techniques.

The results of Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test (Tables 4, 5, 6) of the mathematics achievement assessment revealed that there were significant differences in the pre- and post-test scores, indicating that the students’ mathematical problem-solving abilities improved. Moreover, the Mann–Whitney U test results showed that there was a significant difference between the average pretest scores of the high- and low-achieving students (Table 7), indicating that a clear distinction existed between the high- and low-achieving students. However, the Mann–Whitney U test also revealed that there was a minimal difference between the average scores of the high- and low-achieving students (Table 8), indicating that the scores of the low-achieving students reached those of the high-achieving students after the intervention. Additionally, the Mann–Whitney U test results showed that there was a minimal difference in the average score improvements between the two groups (Table 9), indicating that both groups of students improved.

Additionally, the five-dimensional analysis of the student-created video activity using the questionnaire revealed that the students found the various steps useful in improving their mathematical problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and filmmaking techniques. More specifically, with regard to the individual creation loop, the Mann–Whitney U test results for the learning from the tutorial videos step (Table 12) revealed that most of the students liked learning mathematics by watching the tutorial videos and thought that the videos gave them opportunities to learn mathematical concepts. This finding is in line with the findings of studies (Choi and Johnson 2005, 2007; Mackey and Ho 2008; Pan et al. 2012) showing that tutorial videos have a nurturing value for instruction and can be provided to students for modeling and imitating. Based on the Mann–Whitney U test results for the solving a similar problem step (Table 13), most of the students reported that the student-created video activity gave them ample opportunities to practice similar problems and gave them a clearer understanding. The results indicate that students could explore the differences between the mathematics word problems in the tutorial videos and similar problems, use the approaches employed by the tutorial videos, and combine existing knowledge in their own way to solve similar problems and generate new mathematical problem-solving strategies. This finding is also in line with the creative process of changing from imitating to combining in the creation loop (Chan et al. 2018). The Mann–Whitney U test results for the sharing ideas step (Table 14) showed that most of the students believed that sharing ideas could improve their mathematical problem-solving and communication skills. More specifically, the students were provided opportunities to organize their mathematical problem-solving strategies, communicate their mathematical thinking to peers, and receive feedback on how to improve their mathematical problem-solving strategies in the sharing ideas step. This finding is consistent with the creative process of transitioning from combining to staging in the creation loop (Chan et al. 2018).

Regarding the group creation loop, the Mann–Whitney U test results for the creating videos step (Table 15) showed that most students reported that creating videos improved their communication skills and filmmaking techniques. More specifically, the students were provided with opportunities to collaborate, learn peers’ mathematical problem-solving strategies and combine existing knowledge in their own way to create their tutorial videos as their artifacts. This finding is also in line with the creative process of transitioning from imitating to combining in the creation loop (Chan et al. 2018). Based on the Mann–Whitney U test results for the demonstrating as a group step (Table 16), most of the students compared and shared their mathematical problem-solving strategies, processes, and filmmaking techniques with others. More specifically, each group shared its artifacts for staging, received feedback from other groups, and then compared its artifacts and filmmaking techniques for reflection. This finding is consistent with results regarding the development of a deeper understanding and sense of knowledge in the creation loop (Chan et al. 2018).

Notably, based on the IDC theory framework, which incorporates six cognitive apprenticeship strategies as subcomponent concepts of the creation loop model, learning from creating videos and sharing ideas can be considered forms of learning by teaching. When students know that they will prepare to teach their fellow classmates by creating videos, they will organize their knowledge better, hence improving their learning and engaging in careful practices (Bargh and Schul 1980; Psaradellis 2014). Moreover, when students explain their mathematical thinking to others, the process enables them to improve their comprehension of mathematics content (Falchikov 2001) and allows them to learn more deeply (Hanke 2012; Jacq et al. 2016). The findings of this study also show how video creation can increase both students’ interest and their learning.

2. Both high- and low-achieving students had positive attitudes and low anxiety toward participating in the interest-driven video creation learning activity.

The results from the four dimensions of the questionnaire (Table 10) and the learning feedback sheets revealed that the students’ mathematics learning attitudes toward the student-created video activity tended to be positive and that their anxiety levels about the activity tended to be low. Additionally, the results of the Mann–Whitney U test showed minimal differences in attitudes between the high- and low-achieving students (Table 11). This finding indicated that the interest-driven video creation learning activity could increase both high- and low-achieving students’ interest. Regarding attitudes toward the learning activity, the students seemed to be satisfied with the video creation activity; they enjoyed it and were happy with it and interested in it as a mathematics learning activity. These findings were consistent with the results of previous similar student-created video studies (e.g., Hulsizer 2016; Kearney and Schuck 2005; Banaszewski 2002). Additionally, the learning feedback sheets revealed that the students enjoyed the video creation learning activity and were especially impressed by sharing, collaborating with peers in small groups, communicating mathematics concepts with peers, and creating their artifacts with the tablet PCs. These responses might have occurred due to the activity being interactive and the free communication in small groups, which made the learning experience quite different from traditional approaches. Regarding anxiety about the activity, the results from Table 10 indicate that the students’ anxiety levels were low when participating in this activity. Additionally, the results of the Mann–Whitney U test showed minimal differences in anxiety between the high- and low-achieving students (Table 11). This finding indicated that both high- and low-achieving students’ anxiety levels were low when participating in this activity. However, the standard deviation for the item with the highest score was higher than that of the other items, suggesting that some students might feel nervous when performing this activity. On the learning feedback sheets, 10 students mentioned that they felt embarrassed when they played the role of an actor to explain their mathematical problem-solving processes or were asked to show their videos in front of their peers. This finding is in line with the findings of a study by Martin et al. (2013) showing that students sometimes felt nervous when they were in front of a camera or heard their own voices. Moreover, this embarrassment could be one of the reasons for a number of students’ anxiety scores being higher than the mean scores. Nevertheless, the findings of a study by Kearney and Schuck (2006) indicated that creating a video generated less anxiety than giving an oral class presentation.

3. Both high- and low-achieving students perceived both mathematics and the learning activity to be highly useful based on their participation in the interest-driven video creation learning activity.

The results from the four dimensions of the questionnaire (Table 10) revealed that the students’ perceptions of the usefulness of mathematics and the learning activity tended to be positive, and all of the students gave positive feedback on the learning feedback sheets. Additionally, the results of the Mann–Whitney U test showed minimal differences in the perceived usefulness of mathematics and the learning activity between the high- and low-achieving students (Table 11). These results indicated that the high- and low-achieving students had positive opinions of the activity’s usefulness and found the activity to be useful for learning mathematics. Additionally, the comments from the learning feedback sheets revealed that some students recognized the importance of teamwork and that each member needs not only to concentrate on the work for which he/she is responsible but also to make concerted efforts to complete the work. In addition, the students learned to establish positive individual accountability and form positive interdependence relationships when they took turns playing different roles in each learning activity. For example, one student mentioned that, when his classmate who was playing the actor role encountered difficulties, he helped his classmate and taught him how to solve the problem.

Regarding the perceived usefulness of mathematics, students believed that the learning activity improved their mathematical problem-solving abilities and helped them to understand mathematics curriculum materials and related concepts. This finding was also in line with the findings of studies by Rodriguez et al. (2012), Yang and Wu (2012), and Jordan et al. (2015), in which student-created video activities likely helped students to improve their academic performance. Regarding the perceived usefulness of the learning activity, the results from the questionnaire and the learning feedback sheets revealed that most of the students believed that the student-created video activity improved their communication skills, teamwork skills, and filmmaking techniques. This finding was also in line with the findings of studies by Kearney and Schuck (2006).

In this study, an interest-driven video creation learning activity was developed to support both high- and low-achieving students' interest and learning. Several characteristics of the learning activity warrant emphasis. First, the learning activity is interest-driven. Based on the interest loop in IDC theory, the student-created video activity is intended to stimulate students’ curiosity. Tutorial videos are used to trigger students’ initial interest to provide them with new knowledge and problems beyond their levels. To maintain students’ interest and to fully immerse them in the learning activity, this activity provides students with the scaffolding of individual and group learning processes to support them in establishing a goal and creating tutorial videos as their artifacts. To extend students’ interest in gaining more knowledge and to guide them to repeat this learning experience, the activity provides students with opportunities to integrate knowledge from discussions, sharing of ideas, and reflections with peers to ultimately create their own unique works. The findings from this study show the preliminary positive results that the interest-driven video creation learning activity facilitated students’ mathematical problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and filmmaking techniques. Both high- and low-achieving students showed positive attitudes and low anxiety, and they perceived both mathematics and the learning activity to be highly useful based on their participation in the interest-driven video creation learning activity. Second, the preliminary positive results from this study showed that high- and low-achieving students can collaboratively work and share ideas by heterogeneous grouping. Students in groups learn strong points from their group members, take turns playing different roles in each activity, make themselves responsible for their own duties and assist group members in completing the task together. Third, the learning procedures for individual and group learning are flexible. Educators and researchers can apply, modify, and extend this activity with existing technology support in a variety of academic fields to support students’ interest and learning. For example, in this study, the tutorial videos as expert models and students' artifacts were stored on a private repository website. Educators and researchers can use YouTube as a storage platform (e.g., Majekodunmi and Murnaghan 2012). The study uses tablet PCs as the students’ creative tools. Educators and researchers can use smart phones for video creation (Benedict and Pence 2012). In addition, the types of student work that can be created are not limited to videos but can be replaced by different media, for example, podcasts (Fredenberg 2008; Armstrong et al. 2009) and blogs (Benedict and Pence 2012). Moreover, the content of student work is also not limited to video instruction; it can be replaced by other content, such as acting (Ross et al. 2003) and storytelling (Shelton et al. 2017). Fourth, this paper represents an example of the early application of IDC design. The design of the video creation activity includes individual and group creation loops and the use of cognitive apprenticeship strategies as subcomponent concepts of the creation loop in IDC theory for video creation. The findings from this study provide preliminary positive results for mathematics achievement to support IDC design. Finally, Greene (2014) claimed that almost any classroom topics are suitable for video creation. This study also reviews and introduces the various learning topics and tasks of student-created video activities. Furthermore, the appropriate topics and tasks that provide opportunities for students to develop their creativity and reflection are suitable to assign to them for video creation, such as providing the problems that require procedural and multiple solutions (e.g., Cai and Kenney 2000) and conceptual knowledge that can be interpreted, demonstrated, and represented in different ways (e.g., Greene 2014).

Nevertheless, in order to develop students’ learning habits, students must be provided with routine creative learning activities to promote their self-directed capability to learn, reflect, and reach a specified learning goal (e.g., to produce specific knowledge, learning strategies, or artifacts) naturally as a habitual behavior. Ultimately, completing the goal will produce the positive psychological rewards (e.g., a sense of confidence, satisfaction, achievement, pride, self-worth, enjoyment, or interest) that students seek. Additionally, interest is a long-term preference for certain activities or domains of knowledge (Bergin 1999); it is necessary to maintain students’ learning attitudes to nurture their interest in learning. Future studies should continue to assess the long-term effects of such activities on interest and achievement. Further research with larger samples and more academic concepts should be conducted. In addition to gathering more data on students’ learning concepts and acquisition, it would be interesting to analyze students’ artifacts and explore the degrees of learning between the different group roles, from script writer to camera operator to actor, and in relation to other appropriate topics and concepts to increase the generalizability of the study.

This study had two limitations: the sample size was small, which means that the generalizability is limited; and the students participated in the activity only five times in two weeks, so the findings from this study cannot be generalized to assess the depth and breadth of learning. Nevertheless, the present study articulates and enriches the creation loop model of IDC design in mathematics and contributes to an understanding of the preliminary and potential benefits of student-created video activities for mathematics learning.

This study developed an interest-driven video creation learning activity by adopting the creation loop model of IDC theory and incorporating six cognitive apprenticeship strategies as subcomponent concepts of the creation loop model to support students’ mathematics learning. This interest-driven video creation learning activity includes individual and group creation loops that comprise five steps, i.e., learning from tutorial videos, solving a similar problem, sharing ideas, creating videos, and demonstrating as a group, to provide flexible and scalable procedures for supporting students’ interest and learning. This study found statistical evidence that the interest-driven video creation learning activity resulted in significant improvements in mathematics achievement. Additionally, the quantitative questionnaire data and qualitative feedback indicated that both high- and low-achieving students had positive attitudes and low anxiety regarding the activity and perceived mathematics and found the learning activity to be highly useful. Students showed greater engagement and involvement in the activity than in traditional teaching methods. It could be concluded that there was positive evidence of the effectiveness of the elementary program. Although the use of student-created video activities for elementary mathematics learning is a relatively new educational approach, it has the potential to be effective in improving students’ learning and engagement.