Primary School Age Students' Spontaneous Comments about Math Reveal Emerging Dispositions Linked to Later Mathematics Achievement
Table 2
Difficulty scores: coding criteria and real examples of math and reading definitions.
Score
Definition
Math examples
Reading examples
−2
Really hard. Includes reference to words such as difficult, hard, or complex.
“Something you do in school. Something that’s very, very hard.”
“Like you are reading and you are bad at reading and you read something like hard words.”
−1
Kind of hard. Includes reference to words such as the noun form of work, words like learn, phrases that imply exertion zero, or implicit or explicit reference to cognitive processes.
“It is like problems that you have to solve.”
“It is when there is like lots of sentences and you read it to get information.”
0
Neutral difficulty. Includes no reference to difficulty, refers to verbs such as work, do, use, teach, or “work with” without implying exertion.
“Like math projects. Doing math homework.”
“You have a book and you read the words.”
1
Kind of easy. Includes reference to words such as “not hard” or words implying ease.
“It is easy and you have to do it in your homework.”
“To just lay back and read a book.”
2
Really easy. Includes reference to words such as simple, effortless, or speed.
