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Parts Of The Whole: The Educational Sieve, Dorothy Wallace
Parts Of The Whole: The Educational Sieve, Dorothy Wallace
Numeracy
This essay argues that the structure of course prerequisites affects retention of students in a course of study. The same argument suggests that the structure of degree requirements, including quantitative reasoning courses, affects retention in college. In particular, the same set of courses required in a rigid sequence will cause more students to exit the program early than if the same courses were offered in a flexible order.
Changing The Order Of Mathematics Test Items: Helping Or Hindering Student Performance?, Kristin T. Kennedy, Allison G. Butler
Changing The Order Of Mathematics Test Items: Helping Or Hindering Student Performance?, Kristin T. Kennedy, Allison G. Butler
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
This paper recounts an experiment by a mathematics professor who primarily teaches mathematics majors. The main question explored is whether the ordering of the questions makes a difference as to how students perform in a test. More specifically we focus here on the following research questions:\ (1) Does arranging a math test with easy-to-hard items versus hard-to-easy items impact student performance? and (2) If so, does item order impact male and female mathematics majors and non-majors in unique ways? We examine data collected over multiple semesters with several different classes. We find that for most of the mathematics students who …
Parts Of The Whole: When Variation Is The Goal, Dorothy Wallace
Parts Of The Whole: When Variation Is The Goal, Dorothy Wallace
Numeracy
The goals of higher education are a population of extreme variability in expertise, a diffusion of specialized knowledge across disciplinary boundaries, and production of strong K-12 teachers. Promoting these three goals has implications at all granularities, from the pedagogy of an individual college professor to the incentives and policies that shape systemic change.