Fields Of Mathematics Research Articles

Overstaying our welcome: On the rise of women's seniority in the academy

AbstractIssues surrounding gender equality are—and should be—front and centre in the water resources community, and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Very necessarily, the focus tends to be on recruitment, offering support for students and early career academics. The leaky pipeline concept used to describe the incremental loss of women from STEM fields with career duration describes a disproportionate loss of senior women, creating a parallel problem where highly qualified, top tier academics are lost from the system after significant financial and personnel investment by institutions. Ultimately, the leaky pipeline undermines the extensive investment of the hydrology and other STEM communities in equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIA) recruitment and retention programmes by cutting short career ambitions and the trajectories of diverse top performing individuals, resulting in no net benefit of EDIA policy investments and a lack of diversity with seniority. Addressing this critical gender gap requires the attention and support of the hydrology community of practice with specific focus on generating opportunities for advancement, confronting systemic and structural biases and improving education around allyship. Institutions and professional organizations need to consciously grow diversity in leadership and recognize and outwardly manage the perception of academic excellence around slow research and education that attracts increased diversity. Supporting allyship, reducing competitiveness among community members and reinforcing collaboration will not only attract, but retain, a higher proportion of diversity in the hydrology community, academia and STEM professions in general. It is time for the water resources (and other STEM) communities to demand broader accountability and recognition of the barriers to women, implement and reward more diverse definitions of research excellence, and offer allyship training to the community of practice at large.

Lighting pathways to success in STEM: a virtual Laboratory Meeting Programme (LaMP) mutually benefits mentees and host laboratories.

Developing robust professional networks can help shape the trajectories of early career scientists. Yet, historical inequities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields make access to these networks highly variable across academic programmes, and senior academics often have little time for mentoring. Here, we illustrate the success of a virtual Laboratory Meeting Programme (LaMP). In this programme, we matched students (mentees) with a more experienced scientist (mentors) from a research group. The mentees then attended the mentors' laboratory meetings during the academic year with two laboratory meetings specifically dedicated to the mentee's professional development. Survey results indicate that mentees expanded their knowledge of the hidden curriculum as well as their professional network, while only requiring a few extra hours of their mentor's time over eight months. In addition, host laboratories benefitted from mentees sharing new perspectives and knowledge in laboratory meetings. Diversity of the mentees was significantly higher than the mentors, suggesting that the programme increased the participation of traditionally under-represented groups. Finally, we found that providing a stipend was very important to many mentees. We conclude that virtual LaMPs can be an inclusive and cost-effective way to foster trainee development and increase diversity within STEM fields with little additional time commitment.

EMOTIONAL TRAINING FOR PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

Cognitive and affective interrelationships are increasingly gaining importance in educational literature, assigning emotions a prominent role in the teaching and learning process. This study aims to promote awareness among prospective teachers of their emotional vulnerability and the influence of affective and emotional aspects in the teaching of natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciences. The research had a dual purpose: to analyse the beliefs, attitudes, and emotions of prospective teachers regarding the teaching of these disciplines and to examine the impact on their beliefs and emotions after undergoing specific training. The study topic is justified by the growing attention emotions are receiving as decisive factors in learning processes and the persistent substantial gap in scientific education research, particularly in the realm of online teacher training. To address and analyse this gap, a descriptive quantitative survey study on beliefs, attitudes, and emotions towards the teaching of these courses before and after participation in a training program was designed. The analysis of the data revealed results consistent with previous studies. Specifically, the results demonstrated that prospective teachers showed more negative emotions, beliefs, and attitudes towards the teaching of natural sciences and mathematics compared to the teaching of social sciences. However, in all cases, improvements were observed after receiving specific training. These findings highlight the need to incorporate emotional improvement projects into online teacher training, particularly in the fields of natural sciences and mathematics. Keywords: distance education, emotional teaching, pre-service teachers, science education

Defining quantitative rules for identifying influential researchers: Insights from mathematics domain

In the midst of a vast amount of scientific literature, the need for specific rules arise especially when it comes to deciding which impactful researchers should be nominated. These rules are based on measurable quantities that can easily be applied to a researcher's quantitative data. Various search engines, like Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Web of Science etc. Are used for recording metadata such as the researcher's total publications, their citations, h-index etc. However, the scientific community has not yet agreed upon a single set of criteria that a researcher has to meet in order to secure a spot on to the list of impactful researchers. In this study, we have provided a comprehensive set of rules for the scientific community within the field of mathematics, derived from the top five quantitative parameters belonging to each category. Within each categorical grouping, we meticulously selected the five most pivotal parameters. This selection process was guided by an importance score, that was derived after assessing its influence on the model's performance in the classification of data pertaining to both awardees and non awardees. To perform the experiment, we focused on the field of mathematics and used a dataset containing 525 individuals who received awards and 525 individuals who did not receive awards. The rules were developed for each parameter category using the Decision Tree Algorithm, which achieved an average accuracy of 70 to 75 percent for identifying awardees in mathematics domains. Moreover, the highest-ranked parameters belonging to each category were successful in elevating over 50 to 55 percent of the award recipients to positions within the top 100 ranked researchers' list. These findings have the potential to serve as a guidance for individual researchers, who aimed on to making it to the esteemed list of distinguished scientists. Additionally, the scientific community can utilize these rules to sift through the roster of researchers for a subjective evaluation, facilitating the recognition and rewarding of exceptional researchers in the field.

Methods of Automatic Analysis of Information Presentation Dynamics in Texts Based on Adaptable Dictionaries of Scientific Terms

The paper proposes a method for determining the dynamics of aspectual content of scientific texts. The problems arising in the automatic processing of scientific texts are discussed, approaches to the creation of a combined method of aspect-oriented analysis of scientific texts are proposed. The results of experiments of aspect analysis of scientific publications in the field of mathematics are given. The algorithm of aspect analysis is built on the basis of processing both the semantic domain graph formed as a result of automatic extraction of information from the text of the mathematical encyclopedia and the weighted semantic graph of the publication. Weighting functions for calculating the dependence of links between professional terms of the semantic domain graph are proposed. During the processing the text of a scientific publication, the semantic domain graph is transformed into the semantic graph of the publication, the two-phase processing algorithm of which forms semantic dependencies between text fragments.

Identity Trajectories of Faculty Members through Interdisciplinary STEAM Collaboration Paired with Public Communication

Faculty members in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are accustomed to presenting their research findings through journal publications, conference presentations, textbooks, and other academic mediums. However, the audience for these traditional forms of communication are other researchers, which raises concerns about how science research and knowledge are communicated to audiences who have less expertise on these topics. We sought to understand how faculty members develop their identities through collaborative professional development opportunities aimed at growing communication skills to communicate with audiences less familiar with research through interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) activities. We conducted a qualitative, longitudinal study with sixteen STEAM faculty members to explore their identity trajectories as their interdisciplinary cohorts participated in various collaborations to engage with public audiences about their research. Through our analysis, we found that each faculty member’s dominant identity played a significant role in their identity trajectory through their professional development. We observed a significant growth in faculty members’ communication skills, such as learning new presentation techniques to engage others in their research areas of expertise and in their understanding of interdisciplinary STEAM collaboration. Our results provide insights into the identity trajectories of faculty members and how their identity development through these interdisciplinary STEAM collaborations will impact their formal education roles as researchers and teachers moving forward.

Literature Review: Study of the Use of Interactive Multimedia in Mathematics and Natural Sciences Learning in Indonesia

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching has become an important issue in recent years in order to improve the quality of education. One use of ICT is as a learning tool, namely in the form of interactive multimedia. Learning using interactive multimedia develops on the basis of conventional learning which cannot meet students' learning needs. This interactive multimedia can be a supplement and complement to learning which represents learning resources. Interactive multimedia is multimedia that is equipped with a controller that can be operated by the user, so that the user can choose what they want for the next process. Interactive multimedia has been widely created and used in Mathematics and Natural Sciences learning in Indonesia. In this paper, a literature review study will be carried out on the use of interactive multimedia in learning in the fields of mathematics and natural sciences, to see developments, development methods, weaknesses and the results that have been achieved. On this occasion, the author provides observation results based on evidence through a literature review regarding the extent of multimedia use in learning, especially in the field of exact sciences such as mathematics and natural sciences.

Independence Number of Order Prime Graph

Objective: To explore the algebraic structures inherent in groups and their relationship to graph theory, particularly focusing on the process of converting a group into a graph. Method: Let be a group. The Order Prime Graph of is a graph with and two distinct vertices and are adjacent in if and only if In this paper, we characterize the structure of order prime graphs of some groups and also we find the independence number and clique number of the order prime graph. Finding: In the present article, we characterized the structure of order prime graphs of some groups and also we found the independence number and clique number of the order prime graph. Novelty: Introducing innovative methods for converting groups into graphs, departing from existing approaches, could be a key novelty. This might involve novel ways of encoding group elements as vertices and group operations as edges, potentially leveraging insights from other mathematical fields or computational techniques. Keywords: Order Prime graph, Finite group, Clique number, Independence number, Prime number

Nanomaterials Research at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution: Transforming Nanorods, Undergraduate Research Communities, and Infrastructure.

Undergraduate research transforms student's conceptions of themselves as scientists and encourages participation and retention in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Many barriers exist to carrying out scientifically impactful undergraduate research in nanomaterials at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). Here, we share several practices and design principles that demonstrate pathways to overcome these barriers. Design of modular research projects with low entry barriers is essential. Postsynthetic transformation of nanoparticles is a field that enables such design and has been used successfully to advance nanoscience research while being achievable within undergraduate laboratories. Relatively large, inclusive research communities can be supported through the creation of opportunities with peer- and near-peer mentoring. We also share emerging strategies for enabling routine undergraduate access to transmission electron microscopy, which is one of the most mainstream characterization techniques in nanoscience yet is frequently absent from the infrastructure at undergraduate-focused institutions.

Core competency oriented problem-solving teaching ----Taking "Solving Application Problems with a System of Equations" as an Example

The teaching of Mathematical problem-solving is one of the three key teaching points in junior high school mathematics. Solving applied problems through equations (systems) is an important component of the first module of teaching content, "Numbers and Algebra", and holds a very important position. It is a key focus in junior high school mathematics problem-solving teaching. At present, under the premise of the implementation of the new curriculum reform in the field of mathematics in China, based on the recent publication of compulsory education curriculum standards,the teachers of mathematics should focus on cultivating excellent mathematical core literacy among junior high school students, and ensuring that they can independently cope with and solve problems in the math teaching of junior high school. Based on the above background, the author focuses on the newly published mathematics curriculum standards in 2022, and studies the teaching design of "solving application problems for systems of equations". In this paper, we explore the mathematical core literacy elements contained in the teaching of solving applied problems in equations, study the improvement path of mathematical problem-solving teaching, share the teaching design practice and thinking based on core literacy oriented problem-solving teaching, and the important role that this teaching design can play in cultivating students' core literacy .

Lesson Plan Design Process Develops STEM Design Thinking Through Science Grade 4

Within the context of fundamental STEM education, the primary objective of this article is to investigate the process of developing lesson plans specifically for the aim of fostering students' capacity for design thinking in the field of science. When it comes to the process of document gathering and analysis, the qualitative research approach is utilized. The outcomes of the study indicate that design thinking makes a substantial contribution to the development of students' creative activities and their ability to engage in problem-solving activities. In addition, it has been demonstrated that design thinking is an extremely efficient method for supporting students in their educational pursuits. Education in the fields of mathematics, science, technology, and engineering are all equally important. while it comes to the field of STEM education, it is essential to adhere to a particular method while developing lesson plans to encourage the growth of design thinking in students. In order to improve the efficiency of STEM education and to provide recommendations regarding areas that need additional research on the subject matter, the purpose of this article is to supply academics and teachers with resources that are pertinent to the subject matter.

Experiences of female early-career professionals in male-dominated STEM companies in Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan put forward elaborate initiatives to address gender segregation in the labour market. However, female professionals are still heavily underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Considering conflicting cultural influences on the role of women in the country and guided by the social cognitive theory, the present study explores the early career experiences of female professionals working in STEM companies in Kazakhstan. The thematic analysis of 24 semi-structured interviews with early-career female professionals showed that social structural challenges with recruitment and promotion, organization integration and work-life balance prevent women from building successful careers in STEM. It was also found that to counterbalance these challenges, female professionals develop a variety of coping strategies such as projecting a professional image and adopting a masculine interaction style, conforming to the existing status quo and challenging gender discrimination and stigmatization. Drawing from the social cognitive theory, this study revealed that conflicting gender role expectations based on traditional, Western and Soviet cultural values might disempower and undermine women’s agency in transitioning to employment in STEM.

Determinating the STEM Education Compentencies of Pre-Service Teachers

With solely academic knowledge, it appears challenging for today's students to find a place for themselves in the business world where they will operate in the future. Therefore, it is crucial to provide students with a variety of abilities, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and analytical thinking, in addition to academic knowledge. The STEM education approach is one of the approaches that aims to equip students with the knowledge and abilities they need in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics while also educating them as persons with 21st-century competencies. In this context, it is the teachers who will provide students with these knowledge and skills and apply STEM education. In this sense, it is thought that teachers' knowledge and competencies in STEM teaching are significant. In this study, it was aimed to determine the STEM teaching competencies of pre-service teachers studying in the last year of education faculties. The case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The study group of the research consists of 45 final year science and classroom teaching students studying at 21 different universities in Turkey. The data of the research was obtained by the "STEM Teaching Competencies Questionnaire" developed by the researchers. The obtained data were analyzed simultaneously by three different researchers using content analysis. During the analysis process, codes, categories and themes were created. As a result, it can be claimed that pre-service teachers have theoretical knowledge of STEM education, but they do not think of themselves as highly competent. They require more hands-on education and wish to use it when they begin their careers, but they need practice-based education for this

Using GeoGebra with Van Hiele’s Model in Geometry Classroom: An Experience with Prospective Teacher

Various advances in technology, communication, and information have provided great benefits to all users around the world, especially in digital communication and learning mathematics in the classroom. However, without a systematic and clear model, the use of technology becomes vague and ineffective in cultivating students' interest and understanding in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This study aimed to explore prospective teachers’ (PT) understanding and experience using GeoGebra with van Hiele’s model in the geometry classroom. The research employed a qualitative approach, specifically a case study design, which included semi-structured one-on-one interviews and classroom observations. Additionally, dynamic GeoGebra task completion, digital objects, tests, and electronic surveys were also administered. The bottom-up data analysis process was conducted inductively by reading the collected data and forming segments, determining the codes, and filtering overlapping codes until themes were identified. The results showed PTs' sequential understanding using GeoGebra occurred enthusiastically in a supportive environment. This understanding was evidenced when students engaged in activities such as examining, analysing, doing, comparing, identifying, explaining, recognising, distinguishing, and solving tasks. Furthermore, the experience of PTs using GeoGebra involved a collaborative environment, motivation to learn, awareness of various technologies, and independent learning. In conclusion, the transformation of PT’s comprehension using GeoGebra in Mathematics is actively demanded with the use of a guidance process such as van Hiele’s model. It provides greater chances for students’ engagement while delivering more appropriate and meaningful learning.

How to design a broad mindfulness program: One approach to introducing mindfulness to a STEM community within a university setting.

Mindfulness has become popular in recent decades as a tool for psychological well-being. However, mindfulness has yet to find a solid footing as a routine practice within the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field. Here, we discuss the design of an introductory mindfulness program that provides the STEM community with a broad overview of various mindfulness methods. We also discuss delivery implementation methods and other considerations when designing mindfulness programming. This article provides resources for those interested in incorporating mindfulness into the STEM field, especially within the university setting.

On Higher-Order Generalized Fibonacci Hybrinomials: New Properties, Recurrence Relations and Matrix Representations

This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the generalization of hybrid numbers and hybrid polynomials, particularly in the fields of mathematics and physics. In this paper, by using higher-order generalized Fibonacci polynomials, we introduce higher-order generalized Fibonacci hybrid polynomials called higher-order generalized Fibonacci hybrinomials. We obtain some special cases and algebraic properties of the higher-order generalized Fibonacci hybrinomials, such as the recurrence relation, generating function, exponential generating function, Binet formula, Vajda’s identity, Catalan’s identity, Cassini’s identity and d’Ocagne’s identity. We also present three different matrices whose components are higher-order generalized Fibonacci hybrinomials, higher-order generalized Fibonacci polynomials and Lucas polynomials. By using these matrices, we obtain some identities related to these newly established hybrinomials.

Enhancing Spatial Ability among Undergraduate First-Year Engineering and Architecture Students

Spatial ability (SA) refers to the ability to generate, retain and manipulate abstract visual images in one’s head. Research of this ability conducted during the last few decades had shown that SA is an essential ability to the development of mathematical skills in children. Later studies addressed adult SA development and accordingly found that SA was a predictor of success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields of academic studies. Recently, focus has also been directed to another related field which is architecture. This group has not been extensively researched in relation to its spatial thinking abilities. The current research examines the efficiency of a new training program aimed at improving engineering and architecture student’s SA abilities. This program was based on previous intervention programs but was innovative in its combination of both traditional and computer-based teaching methods and combining frontal learning, hands on model building and augmented reality (AR) tools, all in a short program of 20 h. We asked whether the training program will be effective in improving student’s SA ability and whether this improvement will remain across different factors such as gender, faculty and math level. The results showed a significant improvement in SA abilities among the students who took the training program, compared with the control group. These results were true for both engineering and architecture students. Moreover, the results showed the training program to be efficient regardless of gender or prior math level.

The Effect of Beaded Media in Learning Addition and Subtraction On Learning Outcomes of Class 1 Students at SDN Ngrimbi 2

Mathematics is a branch of knowledge that is essential for all people in the world to know. Because in daily life, one cannot escape from things related to numbers. Determining time is also included in the field of mathematics. Currency is also one of the topics included in mathematics learning materials. Researchers have the goal of determining the learning outcomes of addition and subtraction for first-grade students at Ngrimbi 2 Elementary School before and after using bead media. To determine if there is a difference in the influence of bead media on mathematics learning for first-grade students at Ngrimbi 2 Elementary School. Researchers designed the study using a quantitative method with a Pre-experimental design type of research called One Group Pretest-Posttest Design. By obtaining accurate data from students who have not received treatment and after receiving treatment. The results of this study in the pre-test showed that the average score of the group was 57.65. However, the group showed a different average after receiving treatment with an average group score of 76.4. Meanwhile, in the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test table, both pretest and posttest data show that the p-value > α = 0.05, indicating a normal distribution. In the Paired Samples t-test, there is a difference in the average between pretest and posttest of -5.784. Additionally, the significant value (2-tailed) is 0.000 < 0.005, indicating a significant difference between pretest and posttest results.

FGeo-DRL: Deductive Reasoning for Geometric Problems through Deep Reinforcement Learning

Human-like automatic deductive reasoning has always been one of the most challenging open problems in the interdisciplinary field of mathematics and artificial intelligence. This paper is the third in a series of our works. We built a neural-symbolic system, named FGeo-DRL, to automatically perform human-like geometric deductive reasoning. The neural part is an AI agent based on deep reinforcement learning, capable of autonomously learning problem-solving methods from the feedback of a formalized environment, without the need for human supervision. It leverages a pre-trained natural language model to establish a policy network for theorem selection and employ Monte Carlo Tree Search for heuristic exploration. The symbolic part is a reinforcement learning environment based on geometry formalization theory and FormalGeo, which models geometric problem solving (GPS) as a Markov Decision Process (MDP). In the formal symbolic system, the symmetry of plane geometric transformations ensures the uniqueness of geometric problems when converted into states. Finally, the known conditions and objectives of the problem form the state space, while the set of theorems forms the action space. Leveraging FGeo-DRL, we have achieved readable and verifiable automated solutions to geometric problems. Experiments conducted on the formalgeo7k dataset have achieved a problem-solving success rate of 86.40%.

Contributions of the anthropological theory of the didactic to the epistemological programme of research in mathematics education

In the early 1980s, the theory of didactic situations put the analysis of mathematical activity at the core of the didactic analysis, thus initiating a new research programme in mathematics education: the epistemological programme. This paper describes and interprets some of the contributions of the anthropological theory of the didactic (ATD) to the development of this programme. These contributions come from the new institutional and ecological perspective provided by the ATD to approach the didactic problem and from the significance it assigns to macrodidactic phenomena characterised by didactic transposition. They are illustrated with research works involving different fields of school mathematics in which the ATD team led by Spanish researchers played a central role: research in school algebra and its relations with functional modelling, differential calculus, and real numbers. The paper concludes by briefly describing the contributions of the ATD to the dialogue between didactic theories, another domain that has notable Spanish contributions.