Students` intrinsic motivation towards mathematics : Cooperative learning compared to individual learning

Intrinsic motivation means that students have an interest and finds something joyful, whichaccording to the curriculum is something that schools should aim towards. The mostcommon practice in mathematics education is individual learning but cooperative learninghas become quite popular. The aim of this study is to examine if these two practices haveany effect on students` intrinsic motivation towards mathematics in primary school. Thisresulted in questions which aims to find out both students´ feelings towards mathematicsand possible differences between the two practices. The study has a phenomenologicalperspective which focuses on the participants experiences. The method used is qualitative,where four students and one teacher from two classes with different practices areinterviewed. The results show that all students had high intrinsic motivation both towardsmathematics as a subject and as a practice. There were no major differences regardingstudents´ intrinsic motivation between the two classes. There were however some differencesbetween students in the same class. Three out of four students in each class had slightlyhigher intrinsic motivation towards the practice in their class, than the fourth student.