Evaluating the Influence of Instructional Approaches on the Mathematical Achievement of Immigrant Students

Abstract

As a teacher, my experiences revealed that although most Iranian new immigrant high school students had an excellent mathematical background, they faced difficulties in learning math after relocating to a school in Vancouver, BC. There are several reasons for this, and this article focuses on one of those. I conducted two series of interviews with seven Iranian new immigrant high school students to collect data. They studied in a Canadian school and had also learned math in an Iranian high school. Participants pointed to different math teachers' methods as a reason why learning math in Canada differs from Iran. Canadian math teachers give students the authority to decide on how and when to finish their math work. These students are not familiar with this authority, and they do not know how to plan for their math education. They need support as they learn how to make decisions and be more autonomous.