A Phenomenological Study of Factors that Impact Math Achievement in a Rural Midwestern Elementary School

Abstract Educational leaders are under pressure to improve student performance in the content area of math after the greatest decline since the National Assessment of Academic Performance began in 1969 (The Nation's Report Card, 2022). Educational leaders are aware of the increasing gap in student performance in mathematics. While teachers recognize the importance of developing math instruction based on student centered needs and differentiated instruction. The purpose of this research was to conduct a phenomenological study based on the lived experience of rural elementary math teacher’s confidence in instructional practices and the factors that impact their efforts to improve student achievement. To understand this phenomenon, the researcher conducted a semi-structured interviews with ten K-5 teachers in a rural educational setting to gain the teachers’ lived experience and identify units of meaning around a hybrid theoretical framework of self-efficacy by Albert Bandura (1977) and differentiated instruction by Carol Ann Tomlinson (2010). The study found that the phenomena is driven by collegial support, experience in the classroom, intervention support obstacles, and parental perceptions and support within the content area of mathematics. The importance that comes along with understanding the development of mathematical strategies and confidence in instruction by teachers at rural elementary school levels drives the core of this study. The goal of this study was to use the experience to inform further research on the perspectives of rural elementary math teachers on their self-confidence within instructional practices that impact student performance. Keywords: self-efficacy, instructional design, academic achievement, vicarious experience, mastery experience, verbal persuasion, psychological arousal, content, process, product.