Motivation and disposition

"Teaching mathematics is a much broader endeavor than simply helping students to acquire skills and problem-solving strategies. Teachers also strive to develop motivation and positive dispositions toward studying mathematics--aspects that will have long-term effects on everything from students' confidence to do mathematics to their career choices. Each lesson in a mathematics classroom should take into account students' motivation level and dispositions and have as a goal the development of these affective characteristics. Explore a wide variety of perspectives on motivation and disposition as these concepts relate to mathematics teaching and learning. NCTM's seventy-third yearbook examines such elements as the demographic composition of a school; the role of movies, television, and the Internet; and nontraditional pedagogy as means of promoting and influencing positive student and teacher dispositions. Motivation and disposition can arise from diverse sources, and many factors can magnify--or diminish--both. The presence or lack of curiosity, ambition, parental influence, teacher encouragement, peer pressure, and future goals--these and other elements play central roles. Against t