How and why teachers use real world connections in the secondary mathematics classroom

Real world connections are considered to be an important aspect of a mathematics classroom. There is an abundance of literature that expresses how beneficial real world connections are for students. However, there is little literature that looks at a teacher’s point of view: what is a real world connection and how are teachers using these in their secondary mathematics classrooms? This study focuses on the teacher perspective of real world connections by surveying and subsequently interviewing participants within one school district. It can be concluded that there is still no global definition for real world connection, but there are trends that show teachers make connections in order to motivate students, increase their interest, and build skills that can be transferred into the real world, such as collaboration, independence, and communication.