Education Commons^™

Strategies For Teaching Developmental Mathematics Students At The College Level, Natalie Lynn Kautz

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to identify strategies used by effective instructors of developmental mathematics, and to discover the perceptions developmental mathematics students have about these strategies. While there are research projects focusing solely on developmental mathematics achievement, this study fills a need by incorporating views of teaching effectiveness from multiple viewpoints.

In this research project, college-level instructors of developmental mathematics students were recorded on video before, during, and after the teaching of an algebraic concept. Students were given a pre-lesson survey and post-lesson survey to see if there were gains in their learning. Students completed a survey about …

Eighth-Grade Students' Use And Justification Of Multiple Represenations, Maria Nielsen

Honors Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore students’ use of multiple representations in the classroom and their reasoning for representation choice. The participants of this study were 22 eighth-grade students. All students took a short pretest consisting of three items. The items addressed mathematics content covered during regular instruction. Students were asked to answer each question using different representations. Usual instruction included frequent probing and encouragement of students' representation use while problem solving. Students were asked to explain their reasoning when problem solving and share their representations with others. Following the unit of instruction, students completed a posttest composed …

Using Relevance To Inspire Engagement In Disengaged Secondary Mathematics Students, Cherie Lynn Burkett

MSU Graduate Theses

With the advances being made in technology, our nation is in dire need of a work force degreed with mathematics and science. In the past few decades, the United States has seen a decline in the proportion of college graduates who majored in mathematics-intensive subjects. If our demand is high, why is our supply decreasing? Research suggests that traditional teaching methods using skills-based curricula make it difficult for students to take an interest in a confusing topic like mathematics in which they see no immediate relevance. I have spent a semester engaged in action research taking steps to increase student …