Setting Effects in Mathematical Reasoning of Early Adolescents: Findings from Three Urban Schools

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Abstract
Three mathematical reasoning tasks (proportions, reasoning with an unknown, and a spatial reasoning task), and an attitude interview were individually administered to 260 8th grade students from three predominately minority urban schools. The three schools and neighborhoods varied in educational advantages as well as in socioeconomic characteristics. An additional 60 students, from a middle class and predominately white school in which a similar study had been conducted previously, was included in some comparisons. A battery of groupadministered cognitive tasks and attitude scales was also administered to the students. The results showed a significant effect for site on all three tasks; however, the variance accounted for by site was slight for the spatial reasoning task and reasoning with unknowns (approximately 5%) while it was substantially larger for porportions (21%). Other characteristics that differed across sites were: (a) solution strategies for reasoning with unknowns and in the simple proportion problems; (b) cognitive correlates for each task; and (c) attitude regarding perceived competence and need for mathematics as well as for the perceived amount of effort expended on mathematics. The results are interpreted to indicate the need for an ecological approach to research on adolescent reasoning. Multiple tasks should be examined in multiple settings, and the relationship between attitudes and cognition should be considered.