College Freshman Beliefs About Studying and Learning Mathematics: Results from a Summer Engineering Calculus Bridge Program (original) (raw)
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2008
She holds an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Higher Education Teaching of Mathematics and Computer Science from West Virginia University, an M.A. in mathematics from S.U.N.Y at Buffalo, and a B.S. in mathematics from Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. She worked for 7.5 years as a mathematician and computer systems analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy and has 18 years higher education experience teaching math, computer science, education and engineering courses. In addition to coordinating the freshman engineering program, she teaches freshman engineering courses, advises students, serves as a liaison to the engineering residence hall, and participates in several of WVU's ongoing efforts to improve the overall experience of first year students.
2008 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
She holds an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Higher Education Teaching of Mathematics and Computer Science from West Virginia University, an M.A. in mathematics from S.U.N.Y at Buffalo, and a B.S. in mathematics from Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. She worked for 7.5 years as a mathematician and computer systems analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy and has 18 years higher education experience teaching math, computer science, education and engineering courses. In addition to coordinating the freshman engineering program, she teaches freshman engineering courses, advises students, serves as a liaison to the engineering residence hall, and participates in several of WVU's ongoing efforts to improve the overall experience of first year students.
Journal of Mathematics Education at Teachers College, 2018
Quantitative analysis of the Factors Influencing College Success in Mathematics (FICSMath) Survey data indicates that high school mathematics teachers’ abilities to teach for conceptual understanding is a significant and positive predictor of student performance in single- variable college calculus. To explore these findings further, we gathered and analyzed interview data gained from a representative sample of high school precalculus teachers from across the U.S., identified by their students as requiring high levels of conceptual understanding (n = 13). Seventeen themes were identified and then combined into five overarching phenomenological themes. These overarching themes suggest that teachers who teach for high conceptual understanding (a) support relational understanding during problem solving, (b) require students to learn how to study to build on prior knowledge and learn from mistakes, (c) use mathematical language and ask critical questions to support learning, (d) focus o...
Exploring changes in pre-service elementary teachers' mathematical beliefs
Journal of Mathematics Teacher …, 2003
Research literature (e.g., suggests that teachers' beliefs about the nature of mathematics provide a strong indicator of their future teaching practices. Moreover, current reform efforts (e.g., NCTM, 2000) ask teachers to lead mathematical explorations that allow their own students to construct mathematics. Understanding prospective teachers' mathematical beliefs and the circumstances under which these beliefs might be changed is therefore critical to teacher educators. In this paper we describe the culture of a mathematics content course for prospective elementary teachers that is designed to provide participants with authentic mathematical experiences and to foster autonomous mathematical behaviors. Using both survey and interview data, we explored participants' beliefs about the nature of mathematical behavior both at the commencement and at the completion of the course. We argue that the participants' beliefs became more supportive of autonomous behaviors during the course. We report that students attributed changes in beliefs to specific classroom social norms and sociomathematical norms that included facets of work on "big" problems with underlying structures, a broadening in the acceptable methods of solving problems, a focus on explanation and argument, and the opportunity to generate mathematics as a classroom community.
2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015
for 3 years, and as Director of the Division of Curriculum and Instruction for another 3 years. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992, where he also served in the National Center for Research on Mathematical Sciences Education as a postdoctoral scholar for 3 years. Jim's research interests focus in the following areas where he has published extensively: Children's mathematical thinking; Teacher and Student motivation in mathematics; and Teacher Change in mathematics. He is currently developing methodologies for utilizing the engineering design process to improve learning environments in Science, Engineering and Mathematics. He has also written on effective uses of educational technology in mathematics and science education as a natural outgrowth of these interests. To fund his research, Jim has garnered over 20millioningrantstostudyandimprovemathematicseducationinurbanschools.Hejustfinisheda20 million in grants to study and improve mathematics education in urban schools. He just finished a 20millioningrantstostudyandimprovemathematicseducationinurbanschools.Hejustfinisheda1.8 million research grant to model the longitudinal development of fractions, rational number and proportional reasoning knowledge and skills in middle school students, and is currently engaged in a project studying the sustainability of changes in urban elementary teachers' mathematics practices. All of his work has been conducted in collaborative partnerships with diverse, economically challenged, urban schools. This relationship has resulted in a significant (positive) impact on the direction that partner districts have taken, including a significant increase in mathematics achievement in the face of a rising poverty rate.
2003
The purpose of this study is to trace the learning, dispositions, and professional development of the first group of preservice secondary mathematics teachers as they make transitions from college freshmen to student teachers to first year teachers. Research questions are addressed as: (1) How participants' knowledge, beliefs, and goals are affected by their experiences in an innovative, reform-based, four-year secondary mathematics teachers preparation program that engages them in a variety of learning communities, then how these cognitions are revealed in their instructional practice as student teachers and as certified classroom teachers; and (2) how participants' behaviors are as undergraduate college students related to their behaviors as certified secondary mathematics teachers and the behaviors they expect from students in their school-level classes. Based on the findings from the study, implications for preservice secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs are proposed in this paper. (KHR)
Action in Teacher Education , 2012
This longitudinal study examines the effects of changes in an elementary teacher preparation program on mathematics beliefs and content knowledge for teaching of two groups of prospective teachers (N = 276): (1) those who completed a program with three mathematics content courses and two mathematics methods courses and (2) those who completed a program with four mathematics content courses and a single mathematics methods course. The results reveal salient benefits of a second methods course that were not evident in the new program with only one methods course. Further, the addition of a fourth content course did not result in notable differences in mathematical knowledge for teaching. In addition, mathematical knowledge for teaching was positively linked to change in pedagogical beliefs about learners, further illuminating the interwoven nature of knowledge and beliefs.
Action in Teacher Education, 2018
This project reviewed the state of the research drawing from articles published from 1990 to 2014 (25 years) with elementary prospective teachers (EPTs) as participants, who were completing university courses focused on mathematics content. Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Of these studies, 11 examined noncognitive factors such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, and identity, 10 investigated mathematical knowledge in various forms, two explored noncognitive factors and mathematical knowledge, and one examined classroom norms and mathematical justification. Nineteen of the 24 studies occurred in the context of courses categorized as involving alternative pedagogy. The analysis revealed positive changes in EPTs' affect (e.g., beliefs, attitudes, emotions) were possible as a result of course experiences, but these shifts were sometimes difficult to come by and encountered resistance from EPTs. Some studies showed an increase in EPTs' content knowledge across the courses, whereas others did not achieve the desired effects. Implications for course learning experiences are offered.