Education Commons^™

Factors Impacting Students’ Perceptions Of Mathematics, Amber Souza

Honors Program Theses and Projects

I want to be able to present math in a positive light to all of my future students, regardless of race, gender, and math background. However, for teachers as a whole to be able to take this important step, they must first develop a deeper understanding of why math is a sore spot for many students.

Impact Of Concept-Based Mathematics Instructional Strategies On Seventh Grade Student Achievement, Katherine Annette Lawley Ellsworth

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In a nation with declining enrollment in college math courses, it is important to examine how mathematics is being taught in the K-12 education system and to identify best practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact concept-based instructional strategies has on middle school student achievement in mathematics when integrated into the traditional mathematics curriculum. Participants included 424 seventh grade students from two middle schools. Students Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Fall-to-Winter data 2018 prior to implementation was used a covariate and Fall-to-Winter data 2019 data during the implementation of concept-based instructional strategies integrated into the traditional …

Exploring Pedagogical Empathy Of Mathematics Graduate Student Instructors, Karina Uhing

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Interpersonal relationships are central to the teaching and learning of mathematics. One way that teachers relate to their students is by empathizing with them. In this study, I examined the phenomenon of pedagogical empathy, which is defined as empathy that influences teaching practices. Specifically, I studied how mathematics graduate student instructors conceptualize pedagogical empathy and analyzed how pedagogical empathy might influence their teaching decisions. To address my research questions, I designed a qualitative phenomenological study in which I conducted observations and interviews with 11 mathematics graduate student instructors who were teaching precalculus courses at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln.

In the …

An Evolutionary Approach To Crowdsourcing Mathematics Education, Spencer Ward

Honors College

By combining ideas from evolutionary biology, epistemology, and philosophy of mind, this thesis attempts to derive a new kind of crowdsourcing that could better leverage people’s collective creativity. Following a theory of knowledge presented by David Deutsch, it is argued that knowledge develops through evolutionary competition that organically emerges from a creative dialogue of trial and error. It is also argued that this model of knowledge satisfies the properties of Douglas Hofstadter’s strange loops, implying that self-reflection is a core feature of knowledge evolution. This mix of theories then is used to analyze several existing strategies of crowdsourcing and knowledge …

College Of Liberal Arts And Sciences_Mt 101 & Wgs 101_Covid-19 Response, Kevin Roberge

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Email from Kevin Roberge, Adjunct Mathematics Faculty, University of Maine to the Provost Office regarding how he had incorporated the COVID-19 pandemic into his courses MAT 101 and WGS 101.

Teaching And Learning Of Fluid Mechanics, Ashwin Vaidya

Department of Mathematics Facuty Scholarship and Creative Works

Fluid mechanics occupies a privileged position in the sciences; it is taught in various science departments including physics, mathematics, environmental sciences and mechanical, chemical and civil engineering, with each highlighting a different aspect or interpretation of the foundation and applications of fluids. Doll’s fluid analogy [5] for this idea is especially relevant to this issue: “Emergence of creativity from complex flow of knowledge—example of Benard convection pattern as an analogy—dissipation or dispersal of knowledge (complex knowledge) results in emergent structures, i.e., creativity which in the context of education should be thought of as a unique way to arrange information so …

Mat 116 Introduction To Calculus - Course Material, Ayesha Maliwal Bundy

Teaching, Learning & Research Documents

Updated addendum to MAT 116 (Introduction to Calculus) syllabus, updated course timeline (both before and after the storms since many students lost power) and a contingency plan for their course team.

Mat 127 (Calculus Ii) - Course Syllabus, David Bradley

Teaching, Learning & Research Documents

Updated syllabus of MAT 127 (Calculus II) class. The update reflects the change in course format necessitated by the mandated transition to off-campus online instruction.

Mat 426 Real Analysis Ii - Course Syllabus, David Bradley

Teaching, Learning & Research Documents

Updated syllabus of MAT 426 (Introduction to Real Analysis II) class. The update reflects the change in course format necessitated by the mandated transition to off-campus online instruction.

Math 3100: Communication And Proof - Assessment, Shawn Mcmurran, Min-Lin Lo, Corrine Johnson, Laura Wallace

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

As a group, we hope through this FLC project to develop a course that promotes departmental SLOs, as well as University learning outcomes for a writing-intensive course. We focused on our new foundational course (MATH 3100 Mathematical Thinking: Communication and Proof). This course, designated as a writing-intensive course, introduces students to disciplinary ways of thinking and communicating in mathematics with emphasis on the construction of valid mathematical arguments, critiques of arguments, and structure of professional mathematical writing including typesetting. We would like to develop a library of useful materials that faculty members can adapt in their classrooms in order to …

Math Department 2019-2020 Newsletter, Mathematics Department

Mathematics Newsletter

Welcome to our annual Mathematics Department Newsletter. This was an unusual year for our department as the coronavirus cut short our time on campus this year. Hence we were unable to have our usual events such as the Annual Mathematics Lecture, the Pi Mu Epsilon Induction and Awards Night, and there was no in-person commencement ceremony. But despite that, many great things happened in our department.

Teacher Support Of Co- And Socially-Shared Regulation Of Learning In Middle School Mathematics Classrooms, Melissa Quackenbush, Linda Bol

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Social influences on classroom learning have a long research tradition and are critical components of self-regulated learning theories. More recently, researchers have explored the social influences of self-regulated learning in cooperative learning contexts. In these settings, co-regulation of learning and socially-shared regulation of learning strategies have been aligned with self-regulated learning theory. However, without specific training or structure, teachers are not likely to explicitly integrate SRL strategies into their teaching. We use case studies to better understand how Zimmerman's theory of self-regulated learning (2008) and Hadwin's conceptual framework of socially-shared regulation of learning (2018) emerge from teachers' support of student-centered …