Effect of Brain-Based Learning on Students' Extrinsic Motivation to Learn Mathematics: Introducing Neuroscience to Schools

Abstract

Neuroscience is now developing as a multi-disciplinary field over the last two decades. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of Brain-Based Learning (BBL) on eighth graders' extrinsic motivation to learn mathematics. It was an experimental study with a single-subject research design (A-B-A). Participants were the eighth graders of a boys’ secondary school of Kasur district. The data was collected using Mathematics Motivation Scale (MMS) developed by Zakariya and Massimiliano (2021). Overall, nine measurements were taken during 18-week experiments at the regular interval of two weeks. One-way repeated measure ANOVA was deployed using SPSS software (Version 26) to analyse data. It was found mean score during baseline phase (A) was lesser (M₁ = 3.47, M₂ = 3.33, M₃ = 3.49) than the scores (M₄ = 4.55, M₅ = 4.74, M₆ = 4.88) in the treatment phase (B), and in withdrawal phase (A), a decline in mean score was observed (M₇ = 3.96, M₈ = 3.92, M₉ = 3.85). The analysis revealed that the increase in the treatment phase (B) was owed to the treatment given (BBL-based instruction). The researchers concluded that BBL has a significant effect on students' extrinsic motivation to learn mathematics at F (2.54) = 56.10, p = .00 < .001, ηp² = .60. Based on the findings, elementary-level teachers were suggested to use BBL-based activities such as i-Think map, visual story-telling and role-playing to enhance students' motivation in the mathematics classrooms.