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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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2017

Mathematics education

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Characterizing College Algebra Students' Mathematical Problem Solving, R. Cavender Campbell Aug 2017

Characterizing College Algebra Students' Mathematical Problem Solving, R. Cavender Campbell

Mathematics Dissertations

This study examines the mathematical problem solving (MPS) practices of students enrolled in College Algebra at a large urban university in the southwestern United States. The primary research question explores how to characterize the MPS techniques, strategies or orientations used by College Algebra students. In addition, this study documents MPS approaches that appear to be most prevalent and examines how these approaches relate to student performance. A grounded theory approach is used to formulate a theory for characterizing the MPS of students in College Algebra. Data analysis shows that multiple student-held orientations identified in this theory correlate with improved performance …


Parts Of The Whole: Why I Teach This Subject This Way, Dorothy Wallace Jul 2017

Parts Of The Whole: Why I Teach This Subject This Way, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

The importance of mathematics to biology is illustrated by search data from Google Scholar. I argue that a pedagogical approach based on student research projects is likely to improve retention and foster critical thinking about mathematical modeling, as well as reinforce quantitative reasoning and the appreciation of calculus as a tool. The usual features of a course (e.g., the instructor, assessment, text, etc.) are shown to have very different purposes in a research-based course.


Mathematical Description And Mechanistic Reasoning: A Pathway Toward Stem Integration, Paul J. Weinberg Jul 2017

Mathematical Description And Mechanistic Reasoning: A Pathway Toward Stem Integration, Paul J. Weinberg

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Because reasoning about mechanism is critical to disciplined inquiry in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains, this study focuses on ways to support the development of this form of reasoning. This study attends to how mechanistic reasoning is constituted through mathematical description. This study draws upon Smith’s (2007) characterization of mathematical description of scientific phenomena as ‘‘bootstrapping,’’ where negotiating the relationship between target phenomena and represented relations is fundamental to learning. In addition, the development of mathematical representation presents a viable pathway towards STEM integration. In this study, participants responded to an assessment of mechanistic reasoning while cognitive interviews …


English Language Learners In The Mathematics Classroom, Julia Mccormick May 2017

English Language Learners In The Mathematics Classroom, Julia Mccormick

Senior Honors Projects

Mathematics is often considered a universal language. Most of us have heard this statement from a math teacher at some point throughout our academic careers. However, for students moving to the United States from another country with minimal fluency in English, this is clearly not the case. They may walk into math class, a subject area in which they may have excelled in their native country, and see the words “polynomial”, “coefficient”, and “differentiate” on the board. Regardless of their experiences in their native language, there are disconnects and cultural differences between languages and skills emphasized that prevents mathematics from …


How To Teach Implication, Martha Osegueda Escobar, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich May 2017

How To Teach Implication, Martha Osegueda Escobar, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Logical implication is a somewhat counter-intuitive notion. For students, it is difficult to understand why a false statement implies everything. In this paper, we present a simple pedagogical way to make logical implication more intuitive.


An Exploratory Study Of Fifth-Grade Students’ Reasoning About The Relationship Between Fractions And Decimals When Using Number Line-Based Virtual Manipulatives, Scott Smith May 2017

An Exploratory Study Of Fifth-Grade Students’ Reasoning About The Relationship Between Fractions And Decimals When Using Number Line-Based Virtual Manipulatives, Scott Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding the relationship between fractions and decimals is an important step in developing an overall understanding of rational numbers. Research has demonstrated the feasibility of technology in the form of virtual manipulatives for facilitating students’ meaningful understanding of rational number concepts. This exploratory dissertation study was conducted for the two closely related purposes: first, to investigate a sample of fifth-grade students’ reasoning regarding the relationship between fractions and decimals for fractions with terminating decimal representations while using virtual manipulative incorporating parallel number lines; second, to investigate the affordances of the virtual manipulatives for supporting the students’ reasoning about the decimal-fraction …


"Returning To The Root" Of The Problem: Improving The Social Condition Of African Americans Through Science And Mathematics Education, Vanessa R. Pitts Bannister, Julius Davis, Jomo Mutegi, Latasha Thompson, Deborah Lewis Apr 2017

"Returning To The Root" Of The Problem: Improving The Social Condition Of African Americans Through Science And Mathematics Education, Vanessa R. Pitts Bannister, Julius Davis, Jomo Mutegi, Latasha Thompson, Deborah Lewis

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

The underachievement and underrepresentation of African Americans in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines have been well documented. Efforts to improve the STEM education of African Americans continue to focus on relationships between teaching and learning and factors such as culture, race, power, class, learning preferences, cultural styles and language. Although this body of literature is deemed valuable, it fails to help STEM teacher educators and teachers critically assess other important factors such as pedagogy and curriculum. In this article, the authors argue that both pedagogy and curriculum should be centered on the social condition of African Americans – …


Teaching And Learning Mathematics In The Ar/Vr Environment, Alexander Vaninsky Jan 2017

Teaching And Learning Mathematics In The Ar/Vr Environment, Alexander Vaninsky

Publications and Research

This presentation discusses teaching and learning mathematics in augmented (AR) or virtual (VR) reality created by a combination of goggles and earphones. It claims that interactive learning in such an environment is more attractive and efficient. It increases motivation and interest in the subject matter. The approach is underlain by the findings of educational neuroscience considering the learning process as the formation of domains in the brain forming mathematics knowledge centers. The teaching process provides sensory excitation and establishes connections among these and other domains. Hardware and software are available in the market. The suggested approach allows for practical implementation …


What’S Brewing? A Statistics Education Discovery Project, Marla A. Sole, Sharon L. Weinberg Jan 2017

What’S Brewing? A Statistics Education Discovery Project, Marla A. Sole, Sharon L. Weinberg

Publications and Research

We believe that students learn best, are actively engaged, and are genuinely interested when working on real-world problems. This can be done by giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects that investigate authentic, familiar problems. This article shares one such project that was used in an introductory statistics course. We describe the steps taken to investigate why customers are charged more for iced coffee than hot coffee, which included collecting data and using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Interspersed throughout the article, we describe strategies that can help teachers implement the project and scaffold material to assist students …


Using Technology To Determine Factorability Or Non-Factorability Of Quadratic Algebraic Trinomials, John E. T. Bernard, Olga Ramirez, Cristina Villalobos Jan 2017

Using Technology To Determine Factorability Or Non-Factorability Of Quadratic Algebraic Trinomials, John E. T. Bernard, Olga Ramirez, Cristina Villalobos

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is aimed for mathematics educators who teach algebra, more specifically, the factoring of quadratic algebraic expressions, and who want to enhance student learning of this topic using technology in conjunction with the Middle Term Splitting Method (Donnell, 2010; MTSM 2016a; MTSM 2016b). We will use technology-based algebra and geometry connections to help determine factorability or nonfactorability of quadratic algebraic trinomials over the integers, over the real numbers, and over the complex numbers, both with clarity, certainty and with understanding by using two equations, one derived from the coefficients of the outer terms and the other from the middle …