Abstract
This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the Emporium instructional method in a course of college algebra and trigonometry by comparing to the traditional lecture method.The math emporium method is a nontraditional, instructional method of learning math that has been implemented at several universities with much success and has been shown to improve the performance of students taking college algebra and trigonometry courses. In the math emporium method, students spend time working on the problems using interactive software. The students are able to get immediate feedback on their progress by soliciting help from the instructors. This method encourages students to be actively involved in the acquiring of their knowledge. In this study, we compare the performance of students using the math emporium method to that of students using the traditional, lecture method. Performance was measured using posttest scores and the final course grades. We found that the math emporium method shows promise to improving students’ performance in college algebra and trigonometry classes.
Highlights
College Algebra is of utmost importance to students’ success in other courses
Failure rates of students in college algebra courses are much higher than failure rates in other freshman level courses (Herriott & Dunbar, 2009)
This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the Emporium instructional method in a course of college algebra and trigonometry by comparing to the traditional lecture method
Summary
College Algebra is of utmost importance to students’ success in other courses. There is agreement in the literature that algebra is critically important to student success in high school and college (Rakes et al, 2010).algebra is a subject many students may find difficult. College algebra has been singled out as the course responsible for low retention of students (Sheldon, 2008). Due to the decline in math achievement through the years when students’ begin to study algebra, the effectiveness of traditional instruction is questionable (Rakes et al, 2010; National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the Emporium instructional method in a course of college algebra and trigonometry by comparing to the traditional lecture method
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