Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

An Uncommon Textbook: Review Of Common Sense Mathematics By Ethan Bolker And Maura Mast, Bernard Madison

Numeracy

Ethan D. Bolker and Maura B. Mast. 2016. Common Sense Mathematics.(Washington DC.: Mathematics Association of America) ISBN-13: 978-1-93951-210-9.

Common Sense Mathematics is an integrative quantitative reasoning (QR) textbook that is built around scores of exercises derived from authentic circumstances from public media and other public sources. The exercises elicit responses from students requiring extensive communication and analyses and distinguish the book from ones typically encountered in a mathematics or science course. Responses to exercises often require one-half page or more of writing and can occupy considerable class time in discussion. The book has material for a one- or two-semester …

Review Of Towards Equity And Justice In Mathematics Education, Edited By Tonya Gau Bartell, Emily Lardner

Numeracy

Tonya Grau Bartell, editor. 2018.Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education. (Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing). 341 pp. ISBN 978-3-319-92906-4 (also available as an e-book).

Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education is a welcome addition to ongoing conversations about what mathematics should be taught and how it should be taught at both the college and pre-college level. Although the primary audience for the volume will be math educators and researchers, readers of this journal will discover intersecting interests, concerns, and strategies.

The Second Decade Of Numeracy: Entering The Seas Of Literacy, H. L. Vacher

Numeracy

This multipurpose editorial explores and tries to count the many types of literacy that are referred to by name in Wikipedia and Numeracy. Wikipedia’s Category:Literacy page identifies 44 kinds of literacy that are the subject of articles, ranging from numeracy and graphicacy to braille literacy and diaspora literacy. In addition, searching Google finds more than 30 adjective-literacy or noun-literacy collocations, including quantitative literacy, adult literacy, and document literacy, that do not have Wikipedia pages of their own but are mentioned on other Wikipedia pages. The sum puts this modest literacy count in line with the more than 70 bodies …

Explicitly Teaching Scientific Argumentation: Using Action Research To Study High School Science Readiness And Detracking, Ami Lefevre

Dissertations

Access to advanced-level science courses can be difficult for those students who start in a tracked system. Tracking is an educational practice where students are assigned to different classes based on ability level. African American and Hispanic students are most at risk since most minority students are found in the lower level track (Burris, 2014; Mehan, 2015; Oakes, 2005). This investigation used an action research approach to determine how explicitly taught elements of scientific argumentation would impact student mastery of argument skills and influence instructional practices by a professional learning community. A mixed method study was used to collect qualitative …

Teaching Science Through Active Learning: Sports, Alexis Ropchock

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Students have a variety of different learning styles and cognitive abilities, so when teaching abstract concepts in areas like physical science it is often hard to engage and develop all of the students in a class. This project focuses on middle school students and more specifically how they learn physical science. The case study and research included examines the effectiveness of teaching science through sports as a best teaching practice. The study involves a group of 8th grade learners engaging in a physics lesson using gymnastics to explain forces and motion, the results from their assessments, and the impact the …

Chemical Kinetics Using A Smartphone Spectrometer, Mary Greggila

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In a time where many high school science classes are lacking in quality laboratory education, there is a need for accessible chemical equipment that enhance teaching fundamental concepts of chemistry with ease and at a low cost. The DualSpec handheld smartphone spectrometer aims to be a quality open-source spectroscopic instrument that can easily be made and used at home by people of any scientific level. This research sought to show that the DualSpec could be used to teach higher level spectroscopic concepts such as those used in chemical kinetics. The DualSpec was compared to a commercial spectrometer using the commonly …

Why We Teach Mathematics To Every Student: Determining Impact Of Mathematics On Problem Solving And Logical Reasoning Skills, Megan Marie Harris

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this paper is to dissect why it is important to teach mathematics to every student, even if the student does not plan on pursuing mathematics in his or her career. This paper will describe and test various reasons why mathematics is taught to every student but it will focus on math as a way to help develop and improve problem-solving and logical reasoning skills. An experiment was conducted on a random sample of fourteen University of Akron students who were measured on their problem-solving abilities and critical thinking through playing two games. These students were then compared …

A Self-Study Of Purposeful Grouping For Collaborative Learning, Allie Cameron Roberson

Honors Theses

Groups are commonly seen and used in mathematics classrooms. During my time student teaching, I have used what I call, “timely, flexible, dynamic, purposeful” groups. I call groups “purposeful” when there is a defined purpose for using them, there is an ability to change groups when needed, and the groups are formed from a timely assessment. During my self-study, I have looked at how I used these purposeful groups in my classroom, and how it differs from common group-types. I give an example of a specific class period, how I used the data from the opener to form purposeful groups, …

Elementary Teachers' Definitions And Usage Of Inquiry-Based Mathematics Instruction, Heather Nunnally

Theses and Dissertations

Current educational leaders call for students to build his or her own mathematical understanding from experiences, coupled with feedback from peers, teachers, and themselves and gain a conceptual understanding of mathematics. Researchers agree that inquiry in the elementary mathematics classroom can help increase conceptual understanding.

This case study focused on how elementary teachers define inquiry-based mathematics and implement it in their classrooms. Interviews, observations and lesson analysis were used to investigate what identities, relationships and activities look like in an elementary classroom that uses inquiry.

All of the participants felt "problem solving" and "working collaboratively" were essential for inquiry but …

Tackling Math Anxiety Through Photography While Using Geogebra, Joseph M. Furner

Transformations

Math teachers can insert photographs into GeoGebra software then explore various math objectives related to the Common Core Math Standards, the paper shows how to motivate students to learn math and minimize math anxiety while doing it. While covering the new Common Core State Standards, the topics will explore the math that surrounds us in the real world thus creating a connection between the abstract math and the life experiences. When math has a purpose, then students are willing to spend time in exploring and understanding new concepts. Real-life photographs that are inserted into GeoGebra will provide the basis to …

The Legacy Project: Rodney L. Custer, Dte, Rodney L. Custer Dte, Johnny J. Moye Dte

STEMPS Faculty Publications

An interview with vice president of Dept. of Technical Education, Rodney Custer is presented. Topics discussed include interest in technology and engineering education; academic qualification; and experience as university department chair administrator and working with the Center for Math, Science, and Technology (CeMast).

Factors Contributing To Student Retention In Online Learning And Recommended Strategies For Improvement: A Systematic Literature Review, Pauline S. Muljana, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Aim/Purpose

This systematic literature review investigates the underlying factors that influence the gap between the popularity of online learning and its completion rate. The review scope within this paper includes an observation of possible causal aspects within the non-ideal completion rates in online learning environments and an identification of recommended strategies to increase retention rates.

Background

While online learning is increasingly popular, and the number of online students is steadily growing, student retention rates are significantly lower than those in the traditional environment. Despite the multitude of studies, many institutions are still searching for solutions for this matter.

Methodology

A …

How Can Career Switchers And Teachers Without Formal Training Be Quickly Prepared To Teach Engineering And Technology Education?, Kathleen Ferguson, Philip A. Reed

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Old Dominion University (ODU) provides a six-hour, hands on workshop to train technology education teachers in design-based learning, production laboratory safety, and laboratory management. The teachers are provided with information about technology education content and pedagogy as well as safety contracts, legal liability, and machine use and maintenance. Teachers in this workshop learn (or update) important laboratory safety procedures and tool skills through instruction, demonstrations, and an active learning project.

The workshop is co-hosted by the ODU Technology Education Program and the Virginia Technology and Engineering Education Association (VTEEA). Three workshops have been held and program interest is increasing. The …

Science Identity Development Trajectories In A Gateway College Chemistry Course: Predictors And Relations To Achievement And Stem Pursuit, Kristy A. Robinson, Tony Perez, Justin H. Carmel, Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This investigation of undergraduates’ heterogeneous science identity trajectories within a gateway chemistry course identified three latent classes (High and Stable, Moderate and Slightly Increasing, Moderate and Declining) using growth mixture modeling. Underrepresented minorities were more likely to exhibit Moderate-and-Slightly-Increasing science identities versus High-and-Stable patterns. Students with higher perceived competence were more likely classified into the High-and-Stable class compared to the other classes. Students classified into the High-and-Stable class scored significantly higher on the final exam and appeared to be more likely to remain in a STEM major across fall and spring semesters compared to the other two classes. Results suggest …

Combined Srl-Based Cognitive-Motivational Modules Increase Undergraduate Biology Grades, Jennifer G. Cromley, Tony Perez, Avi Kaplan, Ting Dai, Kyle Mara, Michael J. Balsai

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Students’ success in undergraduate STEM courses requires effective study strategies, but also the motivation to enact them, drawing on two key tenets of Self-Regulated Learning. Interventions designed to promote students’ achievement and retention in STEM have commonly focused on either cognition or motivation. Building on Pintrich’s (2000) SRL framework, we iteratively-developed and tested the effect of different combinations of one of four cognition-focused with one of three motivation-focused intervention modules. Initial development took place in 2015-2016 and post-iterative experiments occurred in 2017. Participants were 3,092 undergraduate introductory biology students tested in 10 studies at 3 universities over 4 academic years. …

Numeracy And Social Justice: A Wide, Deep, And Longstanding Intersection, Kira Hamman, Victor Piercey, Samuel L. Tunstall

Numeracy

We discuss the connection between the numeracy and social justice movements both in historical context and in its modern incarnation. The intersection between numeracy and social justice encompasses a wide variety of disciplines and quantitative topics, but within that variety there are important commonalities. We examine the importance of sound quantitative measures for understanding social issues and the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration in this work. Particular reference is made to the papers in the first part of the Numeracy special collection on social justice, which appear in this issue.

Investigating Levels Of Graphical Comprehension Using The Locus Assessments, Charlotte A. Bolch, Tim Jacobbe

Numeracy

Statistical literacy refers to two interrelated components: people’s ability to interpret and critically evaluate statistical information, and their ability to discuss or communicate their reactions to statistical information. The ability to read and interpret graphical displays is part of statistical literacy because much of the statistical information people encounter in their everyday lives are graphical displays or tables of data. The purpose of this study was to investigate college-level students’ graphical comprehension. Students’ graphical comprehension was assessed using items from the Levels of Conceptual Understanding in Statistics (LOCUS) assessments. Much can be learned about students’ graphical comprehension based on this …

Introducing Information Literacy To Mathematics Classrooms: A Cross-Case Analysis, Ander W. Erickson

Numeracy

This study employs a cross-case analysis to explore the demands and opportunities that arise when information problem-solving tasks are introduced into college mathematics classes. Mathematics teachers at three universities developed and introduced tasks that required students to seek out, evaluate, and synthesize quantitative claims from disparate information sources. The results focus on a comparison of how the teachers balanced content-specific instructional demands with the information literacy goals of the tasks that they created. Three tensions were identified through this analysis: the need to balance mathematical content with opportunities for students to engage in a realistic approximation of the information problem-solving …

Brave Spaces: Augmenting Interdisciplinary Stem Education By Using Quantitative Data Explorations To Engage Conversations On Equity And Social Justice, John R. Jungck, Jon Manon

Numeracy

In workshops and courses involving in-service teachers, participating teachers can engage in problem posing and exploration of difficult issues when they are asked to quantitatively model alternative scenarios, statistically analyze complex data, and visualize these data in multiple formats. Subsequent to these activities, discussions of sensitive issues, some even considered taboo in classrooms, can open up “brave spaces” in these teachers’ classrooms. Without coaching through elaborate facilitation strategies, the in-service teachers grappled openly with the nuances of such difficult issues and raised many alternatives involving quantitative reasoning as well as considering biological, cultural, economic, social, and political factors influencing social …

On "Icky" Data, The Political Classroom, And Towards Equity And Social Justice In Mathematics Education: A Conversation With Tonya Bartell, Samuel L. Tunstall, Oyemolade Osibodu, Tonya Gau Bartell

Numeracy

Tonya G. Bartell, ed. 2018. Towards Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing) 341 pp. ISBN 978-3319929064.

This brief interview with Tonya Bartell introduces Towards Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education to the Numeracy audience. The interviewers also discuss with Tonya connections between quantitative literacy and mathematics for social justice, particularly in the context of US K-12 schooling. Tonya shares her perspective on topics ranging from the placement of quantitative literacy in K-12 mathematics education and how one might get started in incorporating a social justice lens into their teaching to paradigms for research …