Education Commons^™

The Impact Of A Five-Day Number Sense Intervention On High School Student's Quantitative Reasoning Skills And Self-Efficacy, Rebecca Steele-Mackey

Dissertations

Understanding numerical quantities and applying this knowledge in practical applications is essential throughout life. A well-developed number sense comes from learning foundational skills and continuing to rely on these skills and concepts in higher mathematical education as well as in adulthood. Prior research shows that K-8 students lack a conceptual understanding of fraction, decimal, and percentage concepts (NCTM, 2009). While there is literature that identifies a deficit in these mathematical areas, there is a need to examine possible activities and interventions that can be performed throughout secondary education courses that support growth in students' conceptual understanding of rational number concepts. …

University Student Perceptions Of Math In Relation To Personality, Upbringing, And Online Learning And The Impact Of Those Perceptions On Career Choices, Elizabeth G. Davison

Selected Honors Theses

Students all over the world are developing negative perceptions of the subject of mathematics and shying away from careers in the field of math as a result. The purpose of this study was to determine how various factors, such as students’ personalities, upbringings, and experiences with online learning, affected their perceptions of math and resulting career choices. A survey asking participants about these factors in relation to their perceptions of math was sent out through email to Southeastern University (SEU) undergraduate students and math professors. The survey received 200 responses with 194 of them being Southeastern University undergraduate students and …

Teacher Growth In Knowledge Of Conservation Of Energy And In Self-Efficacy, Paul H. Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines a conversation between a group of three in-service teachers during a professional development workshop. During the workshop, the teachers collaborated to answer a set of survey questions pertaining to energy concepts in physical science. The teachers began the survey expressing low self-efficacy in their knowledge of energy. Through this study, we were able to observe teachers as they learned new concepts. This study used a narrative analysis of their conversation. The analysis centers on changes in the teachers’ common content knowledge of conservation of energy and their expressed self-efficacy regarding that knowledge. Their knowledge was evaluated from …

An Investigation Of Mathematics Self-Efficacy, The Sources Of Mathematics Self-Efficacy, And Mathematics Achievement Among Primary School Students In Trinidad And Tobago, Ronald Sinanan

Dissertations

Purpose of the Study

This dissertation addressed two problems in the literature. Firstly, while many study findings have highlighted the critical role of self-efficacy in students' achievement, additional research was needed about the four hypothesized sources that influence the improvement of students' mathematics self-efficacy. Many studies on self-efficacy sources were conducted with measures not closely tied to social cognitive theory and have not demonstrated sufficient reliability. Using the Sources of Mathematics SelfEfficacy Scale, Usher and Pajares (2009) addressed this problem. They suggested several recommendations for future research (Usher & Pajares, 2008b, 2009), including exploring the validity of their scale in …