A preliminary study exploring the mathematical wellbeing of grade 3 to 8 students in New Zealand

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on student wellbeing in schooling. Despite evidence of disengagement and anxiety related to mathematics, how wellbeing is experienced in individual subjects is vastly under researched. This research paper presents the findings of a study which explores the ‘mathematical wellbeing’ of 1281 grade 3 to 8 New Zealand students participating in their first of a multiyear mathematics teacher learning and development intervention programme. Findings indicate a decline in reported wellbeing as student grade level increases as well as examining both the strengths and weaknesses of students’ mathematical wellbeing. The study highlights the importance of exploring subject-specific wellbeing and provides an eight-dimensional model to measure wellbeing specific to mathematics