Education Commons^™

College Algebra In Context: A Project Incorporating Social Issues, Michael T. Catalano

Numeracy

This paper discusses the development of an innovative college algebra text designed for use in a data-driven, activity-oriented college algebra course, incorporating realistic problem situations emphasizing social and economic issues, including hunger and poverty, energy, and the environment. The course incorporates quantitative literacy themes, is informed by existing college algebra texts within the college algebra reform movement, and implements a collaborative pedagogical approach intended to provide future K-12 teachers an alternative model for the teaching of mathematics. The paper contains a short history of the project development phase, supported by an NSF grant (DUE #0442979), as well as the perceived …

An Activity Promoting The Practice Of Quantitative Literacy For Pre– And In–Service Teachers Of Mathematics And Science, Timothy L. Sorey, Teri Willard, Duane Sholz

Numeracy

The purpose of this article is to describe a hands-on, laboratory activity that provided pre-service teachers in mathematics and science methods courses, and also some in-service mathematics teachers, with the opportunity to exercise quantitative literacy (QL) skills. The focus of the activity is electrical resistance, more particularly the resistance (in ohms) that is painted on small resistors by the use of color-coded bands, one of which is a band for % error. The activity consists of four parts. In the first, student teams familiarize themselves with the code, measure the ohmage of resistors for which the codes are visible, and …

Are Statistics Labs Worth The Effort?--Comparison Of Introductory Statistics Courses Using Different Teaching Methods, Jose H. Guardiola, Nadina Duran-Hutchings, Hassan Elsalloukh

Numeracy

This paper compares the academic performance of students in three similar elementary statistics courses taught by the same instructor, but with the lab component differing among the three. One course is traditionally taught without a lab component; the second with a lab component using scenarios and an extensive use of technology, but without explicit coordination between lab and lecture; and the third using a lab component with an extensive use of technology that carefully coordinates the lab with the lecture. Extensive use of technology means, in this context, using Minitab software in the lab section, doing homework and quizzes using …

Envisioning A Quantitative Studies Center: A Liberal Arts Perspective, Gizem Karaali, Philip I. Choi, Sara Owsley Sood, Eric B. Grosfils

Numeracy

Several academic institutions are searching for ways to help students develop their quantitative reasoning abilities and become more adept at higher-level tasks that involve quantitative skills. In this note we study the particular way Pomona College has framed this issue within its own context and what it plans to do about it. To this end we describe our efforts as members of a campus-wide committee that was assigned the duty of investigating the feasibility of founding a quantitative studies center on our campus. These efforts involved analysis of data collected through a faculty questionnaire, discipline-specific input obtained from each departmental …

A Rubric For Assessing Quantitative Reasoning In Written Arguments, Nathan D. Grawe, Neil S. Lutsky, Christopher J. Tassava

Numeracy

This paper introduces a rubric for assessing QR in student papers and analyzes the inter-rater reliability of the instrument based on a reading session involving 11 participants. Despite the disciplinary diversity of the group (which included a faculty member from the arts and literature, two staff members, and representatives from five natural and social science departments), the rubric produced reliable measures of QR use and proficiency in a sample of student papers. Readers agreed on the relevance and extent of QR in 75.0 and 81.9 percent of cases respectively (corresponding to Cohen’s κ= 0.611 and 0.693). A four-category measure of …

Confessions Of A Weak Tie, Joel Best

Numeracy

No abstract provided.

Five Thousand Downloads, H L Vacher

Numeracy

No abstract provided.

Parts Of The Whole: Approaching Education As A System, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

An educational system is a highly coupled complex system of inputs, outputs, sensors and actuators. Using an engineering perspective, this column begins the process of naming and categorizing parts of the system. It then focuses on teachers as one part of a large system, and analyzes the forces that influence how teachers work, and that draw or repel individuals to a teaching career. The growing shortage of qualified teachers can be explained by properties of the system as a whole that determine the context in which teachers do their job.

Review Of Super Crunchers By Ian Ayers, Eric Gaze

Numeracy

Ayers, I. Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to be Smart. (Bantam Dell Publishing Group, 2007). 272 pp. Hard cover $25 ISBN 978-0-553-80540-6.

Super Crunchers tells the story of how analyzing data is changing the ways in which decisions are made. We in the National Numeracy Network make a case for the importance of quantitative literacy by referring to how much quantitative information is now available to each of us: “a world awash in numbers.” Ian Ayres zeroes in on the people who are making a living crunching all of these data. From the seemingly innocuous (how …

Review Of Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide To Identifying Dubious Data By Joel Best, Joe Swingle

Numeracy

Best, Joel. Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008) 144 pp. $19.95. ISBN 1-978-0-520-25746-7.

Stat-Spotting is a practical, do-it-yourself manual for detecting questionable claims reported in the media. Using examples drawn mostly from mass media sources, Stat-Spotting provides readers with a number of useful tips for identifying potentially problematic statistics. The author’s skillful analyses and explanations presented in clear and concise prose make Stat-Spotting an ideal guide for anyone who reads a newspaper, watches television, or surfs the Web. In short, everyone.

Review Of Calculation Vs. Context: Quantitative Literacy And Its Implications For Teacher Education By Bernard L. Madison And Lynn Arthur Steen (Editors), Maura B. Mast

Numeracy

Madison, Bernard L. and Steen, Lynn Arthur (Eds.). Calculation vs. Context: Quantitative Literacy and Its Implications for Teacher Education. (Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America, 2009). 197 pp. Softcover. ISBN 978-0-88385-908-7. Available free on the MAA website at http://www.maa.org/ql/calcvscontext.html

The papers in Calculation vs. Context discuss the role of quantitative literacy in the K-12 curriculum and in teacher education. The papers present a varied set of perspectives and address three themes: the changing environment of education in American society; the challenges, and the necessity, of preparing teachers to teach quantitative literacy and of including quantitative literacy in the K-12 education; …

Engaging Math-Avoidant College Students, M. Paul Latiolais, Wendi Laurence

Numeracy

This paper is an informal, personal account of how we, as two college teachers, became interested in math anxiety, decided to explore it amongst students at our institution in order to inform our teaching, and became convinced that the massive problem is math avoidance. We tried discussion groups, but few students attended, although those that did made useful suggestions. Thus informed, we designed an innovative course, Confronting College Mathematics as a Humanities course with the possibility of credit toward the math requirement, but it was undersubscribed in its first offering and had to be canceled. How can we get college …

Measuring Resource Inequality: The Gini Coefficient, Michael T. Catalano, Tanya L. Leise, Thomas J. Pfaff

Numeracy

This paper stems from work done by the authors at the Mathematics for Social Justice Workshop held in June of 2007 at Middlebury College. We provide a description of the Gini coefficient and some discussion of how it can be used to promote quantitative literacy skills in mathematics courses. The Gini Coefficient was introduced in 1921 by Italian statistician Corrado Gini as a measure of inequality. It is defined as twice the area between two curves. One, the Lorenz curve for a given population with respect to a given resource, represents the cumulative percentage of the resource as a function …

Quantitative Literacy Assessments: An Introduction To Testing Tests, Dorothy Wallace, Kim Rheinlander, Steven Woloshin, Lisa Schwartz

Numeracy

This paper describes how professional evaluators construct assessment instruments that work properly to measure the right thing. Constructing an assessment tool begins with getting feedback from relevant experts on the content of questions. The tool is developed and refined through comparison with existing instruments, focus groups and cognitive interviews. The final instrument is formally tested for content validity, usability, reliability and construct validity through a variety of statistical measures. This process of construction is illustrated by two examples relevant to quantitative literacy: the Medical Data Interpretation Test and the Math Attitudes Survey.

Integration With Writing Programs: A Strategy For Quantitative Reasoning Program Development, Nathan D. Grawe, Carol A. Rutz

Numeracy

As an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor, quantitative reasoning (QR) risks falling through the cracks between the traditional “silos” of higher education. This article describes one strategy for developing a truly cross-campus QR initiative: leverage the existing structures of campus writing programs by placing QR in the context of argument. We first describe the integration of Carleton College’s Quantitative Inquiry, Reasoning, and Knowledge initiative with the Writing Program. Based on our experience, we argue that such an approach leads to four benefits: it reflects important aspects of QR often overlooked by other approaches; it defuses the commonly raised objection that QR is …

Assessing Quantitative Reasoning, Corrine H. Taylor

Numeracy

No abstract provided.

Parts Of The Whole: Is Everything Equally Important?, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

Two strategies are proposed for sorting out priorities and goals in education. At the college level the column argues that goals, and therefore requirements, should be set based on the desired knowledge base of the entire population rather than the individual. At the scale of a single K-12 classroom the column argues that priority be given to content requiring most instructor intervention, describing how the structure of class time and school activities would change as a result. Implementation of these strategies would lead to more efficient use of teacher’s time and effort, better allocation of systemic resources, and clarity of …

Review Of The Chicago Guide To Writing About Numbers By Jane E. Miller, Neil Lutsky

Numeracy

Miller, J. E. 2004. The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 304 pp. Cloth $45 ISBN: 9780226526300, Softcover $17. ISBN: 9780226526317.

The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers is a reference work suitable for anyone interested in understanding, using, or promoting quantitative thinking. Its primary aim is to identify and illustrate ways in which information associated with numbers can be conveyed most effectively given a particular communication purpose and context. The book is directed at writers who incorporate numbers in verbal or visual displays in documents, in oral presentations, or on the Web. The …

Quantitative Literacy On The Web Of Science, 2 – Mining The Health Numeracy Literature For Assessment Items, H L. Vacher, Todd Chavez

Numeracy

A topic search of the Web of Science (WoS) database using the term “numeracy” produced a bibliography of 293 articles, reviews and editorial commentaries (Oct 2008). The citation graph of the bibliography clearly identifies five benchmark papers (1995-2001), four of which developed numeracy assessment instruments. Starting with the 80 papers that cite these benchmarks, we identified a set of 25 papers (1995-2008) in which the medical research community reports the development and/or application of health-numeracy assessments. In all we found 10 assessment instruments from which we have compiled a total of 48 assessment items. There are both general and context-specific …

The Case For Infusing Quantitative Literacy Into Introductory Geoscience Courses, Jennifer M. Wenner, Eric M. Baer, Cathryn A. Manduca, R. Heather Macdonald, Samuel Patterson, Mary Savina

Numeracy

We present the case for introductory geoscience courses as model venues for increasing the quantitative literacy (QL) of large numbers of the college-educated population. The geosciences provide meaningful context for a number of fundamental mathematical concepts that are revisited several times in a single course. Using some best practices from the mathematics education community surrounding problem solving, calculus reform, pre-college mathematics and five geoscience/math workshops, geoscience and mathematics faculty have identified five pedagogical ideas to increase the QL of the students who populate introductory geoscience courses. These five ideas include techniques such as: place mathematical concepts in context, use multiple …

Establishing The Quantitative Thinking Program At Macalester, David Bressoud

Numeracy

In November 2005, the faculty of Macalester College voted to institute a graduation requirement in Quantitative Thinking (QT) that is truly interdisciplinary. It currently draws on courses from thirteen departments including Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Theater, Mathematics, Environmental Science, and Geology. This article describes the process that led to the creation of this program. It explains how we were able to get broad buy-in at the beginning and the long process of trial and error—informed by formative assessment—that was needed to refine the initial vision and shape it into a viable program that would be accepted by most of …

Confronting Challenges, Overcoming Obstacles: A Conversation About Quantitative Literacy, Bernard L. Madison, Lynn A. Steen

Numeracy

An edited transcript of the opening session of a workshop on quantitative literacy held Oct. 10-12, 2008 at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. The workshop, which brought together interdisciplinary teams from two dozen colleges and universities, was sponsored by the Quantitative Inquiry, Reasoning, and Knowledge (QuIRK) Initiative at Carleton and the Washington-based Project Kaleidoscope. Two mathematicians in the forefront of quantitative literacy initiatives over the period 1997-2008, Lynn Arthur Steen and Bernard L. Madison, converse about attitudes, obstacles, changes and accomplishments. The conversation, structured as an interview, begins with the relationship between mathematics and quantitative literacy and moves through issues central …

All The More Reason For Qr Across The Curriculum, Bernard L. Madison

Numeracy

No abstract provided.

Spreadsheet Warm Up For Ssac Geology Of National Parks Modules, 2: Elementary Spreadsheet Manipulations And Graphing Tasks, Dorien Mcgee, Meghan Lindsey, Len Vacher

Tampa Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This module is designed for potential use in the Geology of National Parks service course at USF. The course is offered as an online course every semester. It includes readings from Parks and Plates, weekly quizzes based on that textbook, and weekly student activities designed to align the course with the University's general education requirements. This module is intended to be one of those activities, with the specific goal of meeting the gen-ed quantitative literacy dimension.

Using A Model That Predicts Individual Student Attrition To Intervene With Those Who Are Most At Risk, Thomas E. Miller, T. M. Tyree, Keri K. Riegler, C. H. Herreid

Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Annual Report 2008-2009, University Of South Florida. College Of Education

College of Education Publications

No abstract provided.

Spreadsheet Warm Up For Ssac Geology Of National Parks Modules, Dorien Mcgee, Meghan Lindsey, Len Vacher

Tampa Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module introduces students to the electronic spreadsheet as a tool for elementary calculation. The module covers some basics, including the components of a spreadsheet, the necessity of an equals symbol for cell formulas, how the mathematical concept of function applies to spreadsheets, and a few mechanical things such as copying and pasting. It also covers some basic quantitative-literacy material that will come up in later modules -- order of operation, unit conversions using proportions, order of magnitude, and a few elementary functions. The module is basically a tutorial followed by a hefty end-of-module assignment that …

Parts Of The Whole: Teachers And The Work They Do, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

This introductory column argues the need to study our system of education with the same care we would give any complex system, pointing out some ways in which the educational system functions differently from other managed systems, and concluding that a careful study of the forces shaping education will lead to insight into what makes educational change successful.

Review Of Quantitative Reasoning: Tools For Today's Informed Citizen By A. Sevilla And K. Somers, Aaron G. Montgomery

Numeracy

Alicia Sevilla and Kay Somers, Quantitative Reasoning: Tools for Today’s Informed Citizen. (Emeryville CA: Key College Publishing, 2007). 626 pp. Softcover with Student CD. $79.95 (USA) ISBN 1-931914-90-1. http://www.keycollege.com/catalog/titles/quantitative_reasoning.html

From charts and graphs (Topic 1) to decision making (Topic 21), Quantitative Reasoning offers a good selection of topics that students in a general education mathematics course and other individuals in our society should understand. Organizing the 21 chapters (topics) under the headings of numerical reasoning, logical reasoning, and statistical reasoning, Sevilla and Somers focus their chapters on examples and devote the last 224 pages to 21 Excel activities. Parallel graphic-calculator …

Word Problems: Reflections On Embedding Quantitative Literacy In A Calculus Course, Gizem Karaali

Numeracy

Even though Quantitative Literacy (QL) programs are currently being developed and implemented in several colleges and universities, most schools still depend on traditional mathematics courses to reach their quantitative literacy goals. This note is a case study of how a traditional mathematics course sequence intended for students majoring in social and life sciences may be modified and adapted to at least partially fulfill the need in the absence of a stand-alone QL program. In particular, we focus on a freshman-level mathematics course sequence that serves various client departments. This sequence covers the traditional content of a first-year calculus sequence along …