Middle-school students of United Arab Emirates: Effects of heterogeneous small group work on attitudes toward mathematics

This study compared the effects of two instructional strategies, small heterogeneous cooperative learning experience versus lecture and discussion, on students' attitudes toward mathematics. 54 boys and 57 girls in Grade 8 of four middle-school mathematics classes participated. Two classes (57 students) were taught using a cooperative learning method and the other two classes (54 students) were taught using traditional lecture and discussion. Differences between attitudes of boys and girls were also investigated and discussed in the light of Arabic culture. The results suggested that cooperative learning might be a valuable method with which to teach mathematics concepts to boys.