The effect of mathematical skills training in teaching physics on promoting task value and minimizing educational burnout among high school grade twelve students

The educational burnout and task value are among the most important variables in the field of education. Educational burnout refers to feeling of tiredness in doing tasks and study, as well as a pessimistic attitude to education and curriculum and a feeling of inadequacy. The task value is one's perception of tasks and their importance, which includes the components of interest, importance, and usefulness. Research has shown that these two variables can affect academic outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of training math skills in physics education on improving the task values and reducing the educational Burnout of 12th grade students. In this regard, the present study aimed to compare students with and without training math skills in physics education in terms of the educational Burnout and task value.

The present research method was a quasi-experimental design as a pre-test-post-test with a control group. In this study a sample of two classes with 36 students from the 12th grade math-physics students from the statistical community of students of the District 1 of Tabriz were selected in the first semester of the 2018-19 academic year. The students in this study were selected by purposeful sampling and then randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. Students in the experimental group were exposed to math skills training for 8 sessions and the control group received traditional training over the same period. The training math skills in physics education package has been prepared by physics teachers and reviewed and approved by professors in the field of education and physics at the university. This package included justifying students about training math skills and their applications in training physics concepts such as vector analysis in physics, linear function and its application in physics, quadratic function and its application in physics tangents and slope. Both groups were evaluated before and after the study by educational burnout and task value questionnaires. The obtained data were analyzed using covariance method.

The results of study showed that there is a significant difference between the two groups in terms of their educational burnout. Students who had math skills training in physics education demonstrated lower educational burnout in compare with control group. The results also showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in the task value. The results show that students who have been taught math skills show a higher task value.

The results of the research confirm the effect of teaching math skills in physics education on improving the task values and reducing educational burnout of students. The results can be used in the field of education. In this regard, it is suggested that in order to improve the task value and reduce academic burnout and consequently to improve academic outcomes, the teaching math skills in physics education be considered. The study did not examine burnout subscales. It is suggested that in future studies, the effect of teaching math skills on physics education on the subscale of academic burnout be examined.