“You and math”: a Padlet for attitude in GenZ

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the attitude toward mathematics in GenZ during the transition from secondary to tertiary education in a first-year class of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of a class Padlet, called “You and Math”, used as a tool to collect students’ narratives about their relationship with the discipline. In this context, the incorporation of cultural objects belonging to the memesphere within the Padlet emerges as an effective communicative medium, which students use to express different attitude profiles according to the Three-Dimensional Model for Attitude. Even if it was sometimes not possible to determine precisely one of the three dimensions defining attitude (emotional disposition, view of mathematics, perceived competence), the profiles – even partial ones – that emerged from the analysis of the students’ contributions allow us to open a window on the inner and emotional world of the class.