Education Commons^™

Integrating Mathematical Modeling For Undergraduate Pre-Service Science Education Learning And Instruction In The Middle School Classroom, William H. Robertson, David Carrejo

William H. Robertson

El Paso is a bicultural, bilingual community with a 76.6% Hispanic population. Combining El Paso’s population with that of its sister city, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, our community is the largest metropolitan area on any international border in the world. Students at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) are mostly female, and 50% of the total student population is made up of first-generation college students. These demographics are accompanied by low socioeconomic and educational factors: 23.6% of local families live below the poverty level, compared to 12.5% nationally; 32.9% of 25-year-olds have not graduated from high school; 19% of …

The Effects Of Changing From A Traditional Mathematics Curriculum To An Integrated Mathematics Curriculum On Student Mathematics Learning In Georgia, Catherine Lynn Mallanda

Dissertations

In 2005, the state of Georgia adopted a new integrated mathematics curriculum, the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), which included a task-based approach for instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine if the new Georgia Performance Standards for mathematics increased students’ mean mathematics Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores or induced changes in the distribution of students’ scores on the PSAT/NMSQT. In addition, it was determined whether the level of course the student took, the type of implementation of the GPS curriculum or the preparation for implementation affected the PSAT/NMSQT scores. The results of the study indicated …

Mathematics: Giving Classical, Christian Education Its Voice, James W. Seidel

Master of Education Program Theses

Classical, Christian education developed in the late twentieth century as the result of the influence of authors and educators such as Dorothy Sayers, Douglas Wilson, and Mortimer Adler. Building upon the educational approach taken in the Middle Ages and earlier, the classical, Christian approach has slowly grown in popularity over the past thirty years. As classical, Christian education has matured, however, some areas of its educational philosophy have developed more slowly than others. In particular, mathematics education within the classical, Christian model has received minimal treatment. This thesis attempts to initiate a more intentional educational philosophy for mathematics in a …

Effect Of Geometer’S Sketchpad On Student Knowledge And Attitude, David J. Dekker

Master of Education Program Theses

This study examines the effects of Geometer’s Sketchpad on student achievement and attitudes in algebra classrooms. It has a quasi-experimental design. The sample included 93 students enrolled in Advanced Algebra courses at Calvin Christian High School in Grandville, MI. Four classes participated in a five-day unit that explored graphs of equalities and inequalities. Two classes used traditional graphing calculators and two classes used Geometer’s Sketchpad. One class of each type took a pretest to measure prior knowledge. All classes took a posttest and attitude survey at the end of the study. A t-test was used to compare class averages. There …

Does The Use Of A Graphing Calculator Tutorial Affect The Attitudes, Achievement, And Calculator Ability Of Non-Mathematics Majors In A Calculus Course?, Kari Michelle Everett

Dissertations

The use of graphing calculators in a mathematics classroom is becoming more common place. Teaching with technology has allowed for advancements in the rapidity with which students learn and the degree to which they retain the material taught. As a result, teachers have time to delve more deeply into mathematical topics that might otherwise have merely been touched upon.

This study shows the effects of a graphing calculator tutorial for non-mathematics major students taking calculus as a required course. Qualitative methods were used in order to provide information about the types of students taking a calculus course for nonmathematic students. …

Student Achievement In Block And Non-Block Schedule Schools, William Shelton Smith Jr.

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the number of minutes allocated for high school instructional periods influences student achievement. The study also examined the perceptions of principals regarding one method of instructional time allocation, block scheduling.

The study examined the differences in student achievement on a high school exit examination in the content areas of Reading and Mathematics between schools in a southern state using a four-period block schedule and schools using a non-block schedule in order to ascertain if the type of schedule has any impact on student achievement. Additionally, information pertaining to scheduling was collected …

Teaching Statistics To Elementary Children: Using A Problem-Solving Approach To Enhance Learning, Kayla Lee Botelho

Honors Projects

When teaching statistics (or data analysis) to elementary children, it is beneficial to use a problem-solving approach that incorporates meaningful tasks to enhance the students' learning. This was determined through a careful review of literature, observations of elementary teachers, and the creation and instruction of data analysis unit. The unit required the students to collect data on heights, organize the data in charts, and display the data in line plots. In addition, the students analyzed the data to recalculate the average and other measures of central tendency and to answer questions that arose through the implementation of the lessons. In …

An Analysis Of Mathematics Interventions: Increased Time-On-Task Compared With Computer-Assisted Mathematics Instruction, James M. Calhoun Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student achievement is not progressing on mathematics as measured by state, national, and international assessments. Much of the research points to mathematics curriculum and instruction as the root cause of student failure to achieve at levels comparable to other nations. Since mathematics is regarded as a gate keeper to many educational opportunities as well as, eventually, potential job prospects, critics are asking schools to fix the problem.

This research project is a comparison of two different interventions used to improve student performance as tested on the Colorado State Assessment Program (CSAP). The first intervention, increased time-on-task, was used at Freedom …

Using Technology To Increase Interest In The Learning Of Mathematics, Teresa May Anderson

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to develop unit openers in the form of PowerPoint presentations to introduce students to upcoming topics. Within the PowerPoint presentations, relevant visual images are used to pique the interest of the students. Also, within the presentations are opportunities for students to use a hand-held Student Response System to respond to questions. The questions the students answer are related to the upcoming material. After responses are entered, a visual display will show the responses and discussion will follow between the students and the teacher. The project will be used in geometry mathematics classrooms at the …

Strategies To Improve Math Fact Fluency In Elementary School Students, Jennifer Whealy

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop a guide that contains strategies to improve math fact fluency in elementary school students. The guide is developed to be used by elementary school teachers in Washington State to show them how to incorporate strategies for math fact fluency into their math curriculum. The math fact fluency strategies ca:n be used to help teachers support students in their understanding of their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. This guide will contain research based strategies to improve math fact fluency for kindergarten through fifth grade students. The guide will include research based …

Both Ways Strong: Using Digital Games To Engage Aboriginal Learners, Robyn Jorgensen, Tom Lowrie

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Engaging Aboriginal learners in the school curriculum can be quite a challenge given issues of cultural and linguistic differences. Even more so, these differences can be expanded when the students are in their adolescence. Creating learning environments that engage learners, while providing deep learning opportunities, is one of the biggest challenges for teachers in remote communities. This paper reports on a reform initiative that centred on the use of a digital game, Guitar Heroes, in a remote Aboriginal school. It was found that the digital media provided teachers with opportunities for new learning spaces and resulted in additional unintended learning …

Fifth Grade Children's Use Of Reciprocal Teaching To Solve Word Problems In Mathematics, Mary Helen Collen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Reciprocal teaching, a social constructivist instruction method, was explored in this study on the mathematical word problem solving skills of fifth grade students in two elementary schools within a suburban school district in upstate New York. Eighty-five students in four intact classes participated in this mixed methods study.

I Have A Solution To Share: Learning Through Equitable Participation In A Mathematics Classroom, Mary Q. Foote, Rachel Lambert

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Student participation is an issue of equity. Without participation there can be no learning. This study focuses on the participation (and therefore learning) of struggling students (those with individual education plans [IEPs]) during the implementation of a relational thinking routine in a third-grade inclusion classroom. Students with IEPs often initially used direct modeling with linking cubes as a resource for presenting their thinking. In this way, they were able to demonstrate their ability to think relationally. As the year progressed, these students, who had earlier been reluctant to share and had done so only by using several of the resources …

Enhancing The Teaching And Learning Of Computational Estimation In Year 6, Paula Mildenhall

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

There have been repeated calls for computational estimation to have a more prominent position in mathematics teaching and learning but there is still little evidence that quality time is being spent on this topic. Estimating numerical quantities is a useful skill for people to be able to use in their everyday lives in order to meet their personal needs. It is also accepted that number sense is an important component of mathematics learning (McIntosh, Reys, Reys, Bana, & Farrell, 1997; Paterson, 2004) and that computational estimation is an important part of number sense (Edwards, 1984; Markovits & Sowder, 1988; Schoen, …