RUME 25
2023
Omaha, Nebraska
What is a “Math Person?”: Students’ Interpretation of Identity Terminology
Page: 661
We investigated seven undergraduate students’ definitions of two terms used in mathematics education research: “identity” and “math person.” Students’ interpretations of these terms were compared to an existing identity framework (Cass et al., 2011; Cribbs et al., 2015). Participants’ definitions for “identity” varied widely, emphasizing different aspects of personal, social, and mathematics identities. In contrast, students were fairly uniform in describing a “math person” as an individual who enjoys and/or is proficient in mathematics, which is consistent with known factors related to mathematics identity. This second finding bears relevance given the use of self- identification as a “math person” in measurements of students’ mathematics identity. These results guide our development of survey items meant to assess aspects of student affect in the mathematics classroom, with the ultimate goal of providing instructors actionable insights into their classroom climate.