Math Courses Research Articles

Impact of Educational Background as a Pre-Requirement for Entry into Pharmacy Schools on Success in a Professional Program

Abstract In a survey conducted to determine the effect of educational background of pharmacy students before entering a pharmacy program on their success as a first professional year student, a total of 6 questionnaires and questions related to demographics were administered. The survey was administered using an online instrument and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to conduct the statistical analysis. Based on the results; the majority of students who completed the survey (77 students) agreed that their educational-background, the academic institution they have previously attended, and elapse of math courses played significant roles in their success [1]. Being a female gender and taking a break between undergraduate-program and entering pharmacy school are also identified as some of the factors that played a role in their success. Although the study population is small, it seems that taking time to get more education or have extra time before joining pharmacy school are some of the key factors identified in this study that contributed to a higher rate of success in a pharmacy program [2].

Instruction Quality or Working Condition? The Effects of Part-Time Faculty on Student Academic Outcomes in Community College Introductory Courses

More than half of community college courses are taught by part-time faculty. Drawing on data from six community colleges, this study estimates the effects of part-time faculty versus full-time faculty on students’ current and subsequent course outcomes in developmental and gateway courses, using course fixed effects and propensity score matching to minimize bias arising from student self-sorting across and within courses. We find that part-time faculty have negative effects on student subsequent enrollments. These negative effects are driven by results in math courses. We also find that course schedules could explain substantial proportions of the estimated negative effects, while faculty individual characteristics could not. Survey results on faculty professional experiences suggest that part-time faculty had less institutional knowledge regarding both academic and nonacademic services. We infer that inferior working conditions for part-time faculty, rather than inferior instructional practices, contribute to the negative effects we observed on students’ subsequent course enrollment.

Alfabetización y capacidad financiera: Interdependencia de los conceptos y posibilidades de formarlos en un curso escolar de matemáticas

Financial literacy and financial capacity of schoolchildren should be developed to meet the requirements of the rapidly developing society and increasingly complicated financial system of the Russian Federation. The authors focused on the financial education of schoolchildren who represent a special target group in financial relations. The main research methods were general scientific methods of cognition: systematization of theoretical and practical material, induction, deduction, comparative analysis, and synthesis. The authors defined the concepts of “financial literacy” and “financial capacity” and substantiated their interdependence using a synergistic approach. The authors considered school math course as a special tool for the formation of financial literacy and financial capacity of schoolchildren, explored the possibility of their development among Russian students in grades 7–9 in the course of algebra, stated the main problems, and formulated conclusions and recommendations.

Computational Psycholinguistics

Computational Psycholinguistics

The HBCU-HDI Women in STEM Conferences

Although the number of women enrolling in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses has increased over the past few years, women still remain widely underrepresented in STEM fields. To address this serious issue, the HBCU-HDI Women in STEM Conference, an event organised by Dr Sonya Smith and her colleagues at Howard University, brings female scientists and graduate students from the US and South Africa together to openly discuss the challenges and opportunities for women pursuing careers in STEM-related fields.

Bridging the gap – How effective are remedial math courses in Germany?

Almost all German universities complain that the math skills of students entering the higher education system do not meet the level demanded by universities. This is a major problem, particularly in math-related study programs such as economics, engineering or science. To bridge the gap, almost all universities offer some remedial math courses. However, there is only weak empirical evidence for the effectiveness of these courses in Germany. This paper aims to fill this gap by evaluating a remedial math course given within the Economics Department of a German university. A key finding: taking a math remedial course on a regular basis will enhance students' math skills and increase the probability of passing the final math exam by 35 percent.

Keeping in School Shape (KiSS): A Program for Rehearsing Math Skills Over Breaks from School

If you don’t use it, you lose it. School breaks, during which students do not regularly participate in instruction, can therefore have negative consequences on learning. This is especially true for mathematics learning since skills build progressively on earlier materials. How can we bridge these gaps in formal instruction? The Keeping in School Shape (KiSS) program is a mobile, engaging, innovative, and cost-effective way of using technology to help students who have time off between related math courses stay fresh on prerequisite knowledge and skills. Founded on learning theory and designed on a model of behavioral change, the KiSS program embodies retrieval practice and nudges by sending students a daily multiple-choice review problem via text messaging over school break. After rating their confidence in solving the daily problem students receive feedback and a solution. This study explores measures of participation, accuracy, and confidence in an implementation of the KiSS program over winter break between two sequential introductory engineering courses at a large state university in the Southwest United States. Results indicate that careful attention should be paid to the construction of the first few days of the program, and that encouragement, additional resources for review and practice, and an increased breadth of problem difficulty may improve participation.

Veering off track in U.S. high schools? Redirecting student trajectories by disrupting punishment and math course-taking tracks

Students in punishment “tracks” are rarely in advanced course-taking “tracks” in high school. Yet, there is little research that demonstrates the relationships between punishment and advanced course-taking, nor research that demonstrates how punishment and advanced course-taking together can impact long-term student trajectories. Using multi-level modeling with a national longitudinal study of high school students, we observed reciprocal disruptions. Advanced math courses significantly impacted future suspensions when accounting for prior suspensions, while suspensions significantly impacted future advanced math course-taking when accounting for prior math courses. We also observed that both suspensions and advanced math courses significantly influenced dropout status and college attendance. As baseline measures often maintained a strong relationship with their respective outcomes, disadvantages appeared to accumulate when students were excluded both from advanced math courses and through suspensions. Nevertheless, while we cannot undo the harms of previous disadvantages in punishment, our findings suggest that we can facilitate potential turning points in students’ lives by opening up new opportunities in math. By doing so, we can redirect students towards college. We conclude with a discussion of implications for policy and practice.

Experiences of Girls and Mentors With an Urban Kenyan Afterschool Support Program

This article explores the experiences of female mentees and their mentors in an afterschool support program in two informal urban settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. We sought the perspectives of mentees and mentors to identify what has changed concerning the education and social lives of the girls because of this education intervention. Data come from a qualitative component of the midterm survey collected in May 2014 using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The results show improvements in the English and math courses in which support with homework was given; girls were motivated to stay in school and had a higher aspiration for school. However, challenges remained, as some parents did not provide adequate support to their daughters. Overall, the program highlights the role of other significant players and reinforces the out-of-school mentor support for girls’ success in school.

Dual‐Credit Courses and the Road to College: Experimental Evidence from Tennessee

AbstractDual‐credit courses expose high school students to college‐level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual‐credit math coursework on a range of high school and college outcomes. We find that the dual‐credit advanced algebra course alters students’ subsequent high school math course‐taking, reducing enrollment in remedial math and boosting enrollment in precalculus and Advanced Placement math courses. We fail to detect an effect of the dual‐credit math course on overall rates of college enrollment. However, the course induces some students to choose four‐year universities instead of two‐year colleges, particularly for those in the middle of the math achievement distribution and those first exposed to the opportunity to take the course in eleventh rather than twelfth grade. We see limited evidence of improvements in early math performance during college.

Cross-Domain Trajectories of Students' Ability Self-Concepts and Intrinsic Values in Math and Language Arts.

Different cross-domain trajectories in the development of students' ability self-concepts (ASCs) and their intrinsic valuing of math and language arts were examined in a cross-sequential study spanning Grades 1 through 12 (n=1,069). Growth mixture modeling analyses identified a Moderate Math Decline/Stable High Language Arts class and a Moderate Math Decline/Strong Language Arts Decline class for students' ASC trajectories. Students' intrinsic value trajectories included a Strong Math Decline/Language Arts Decline Leveling Off, a Moderate Math Decline/Strong Language Arts Decline, and a Stable Math and Language Arts Trajectories class. These classes differed with regard to student characteristics, including gender, family background, and math and reading aptitudes. They also resulted in different high school math course enrollments, career aspirations, and adult careers.

Measuring Mathematics Engagement Anxiety

We present a validation study of fifteen new math anxiety scale items designed to augment the widely-used Revised Mathematics Anxiety Scale (RMARS). While the RMARS and other standard instruments measure students’ anxiety in response to computation, test situations, and math course activities such as buying a textbook or watching a lecture, the new items present scenarios that reflect current pedagogical recommendations for college mathematics classrooms, specifically solving of non-routine problems and explaining thinking to peers. Anxiety in response to these kinds of scenarios we name Problem Solving Anxiety and Explanation Anxiety, respectively. With a survey sample of 132 future teachers enrolled at colleges and universities, we use exploratory factor analyses to demonstrate distinctness of these constructs from existing constructs and provide evidence for construct validity. Cronbach’s alpha for the overall scale, as well as for each dimension individually, are all between 0.9 and .95, indicating internal consistency.

The characteristics didactic gestures of a Study and Research Path involving mathematics and physics at secondary school

This paper analyses the development of a Study and Research Path (SRP) involving mathematics and physics by means of the theoretical construct proposed by the Anthropological Theory of Didactics (ATD) called dialectics . The SRP was implemented in five secondary school math courses and 116 students participated in total. The data analysis was performed using qualitative techniques and constructing nominal variables and their modalities, which also allows the use of descriptive statistical techniques. In this work, absolute frequencies are analysed and some considerations are made - in the light of the theory - to interpret these results. Article visualizations:

Measuring High School Curricular Intensity over Three Decades

This article presents a new measure of curricular intensity that is objective, parsimonious, clearly defined, replicable, and comparable over time for use by researchers interested in examining trends, causes, and outcomes of high school course taking. After proposing a reduced-form version of Adelman’s curricular intensity index comprised of number of courses completed in English and core science, highest math course completed, and whether students took at least one Advanced Placement course, I test the measure in four National Center for Education Statistics high school longitudinal studies using confirmatory factor analysis. I examine the methodological implications of the measure by conducting multigroup tests for invariance across cohorts to understand how curricular intensity changes over time and comparing the measure’s predictive validity to that of alternative measures of course taking. I then examine substantive implications of the measure through analysis of trends and inequalities in curricular intensity. The four course-taking variables combined create a strong measure of curricular intensity across cohorts that performs as well as or better than Adelman’s index in explaining variance in postsecondary outcomes and predicting postsecondary success. The measure accounts for shifts over time in the relative contribution of each course-taking variable to overall curricular intensity, facilitating more accurate comparisons across cohorts or data sets. I provide practical guidance for using the measure in other data sets, including state- and district-level data, to analyze overall trends and gaps in curricular intensity and its role in postsecondary success, and I discuss some potential uses of the measure for future research and policy.

Team-Based Inquiry Learning

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a cooperative learning strategy blending elements of flipped learning, inquiry-based learning, and problem-based learning. Although used quite frequently in other disciplines, use of this strategy in mathematics has been limited. In this article, we describe how TBL can be implemented in math courses with adherence to essential elements of TBL and introduce modifications specific to mathematics instruction. In particular, we introduce a particular style of TBL, which we term Team-Based Inquiry Learning, that satisfies the defining pillars of inquiry-based learning.

The Labor of Division: Returns to Compulsory High School Math Coursework

Despite great focus on and public investment in STEM education, little causal evidence connects quantitative coursework to students' economic outcomes. I show that state changes in minimum high school math requirements substantially increase black students' completed math coursework and their later earnings. The marginal student's return to an additional math course is 10 percent, roughly half the return to a year of high school, and is partly explained by a shift toward more cognitively skilled occupations. Whites' coursework and earnings are unaffected. Rigorous standards for quantitative coursework can close meaningful portions of racial gaps in economic outcomes.

Assessing and Modeling Student Academic Practices and Performance in First-Year Mathematics Courses in Higher Education

Objectives: This research brief explores literature addressing developmental education to identify successful interventions in first-year math courses in higher education. Our goal is to describe the relationship between students’ academic practices and their final course grade in their first-year math courses.
 Method: Data on 3,249 students have been gathered and analyzed using descriptive statistics and predicative analytics. We describe the Math program, which includes a supplemental support component, and the environment under which it was created. We then examine the behavior between students’ participation in supplemental support and their academic performance.
 Results: We used classification and regression tree algorithms to obtain a model that gave us data-driven guidelines to aid with future student interventions and success in their first-year math courses.
 Conclusions: Students’ fulfillment of the supplemental support requirements by specified deadlines is a key predictor of students’ midterm and final course grades. 
 Implications for Theory and/or Practice: This work provides a roadmap for student interventions and increasing student success with first-year mathematics courses.
 Keywords: First-year mathematics courses, supplemental support, higher education

Giving Community College Students Choice: The Impact of Self-Placement in Math Courses

This study examines the impact of a “natural experiment” that gave students the choice to place into or out of developmental math because of an unintended mistake made by a community college. During self-placement, more students chose to enroll in gateway college- and transfer-level math courses, however, greater proportions of female, Black, and Hispanic students enrolled in the lowest levels of math relative to test-placed counterparts. Difference-in-difference estimates show that self-placement led to positive outcomes, but mostly for White, Asian, and male students. This evidence suggests areas of concern and potential for improvement for self-placement policies. Self-determination theory, behavioral decision theory, and stereotype vulnerability provide possible explanations for the observed changes.

TPACK: Technological, Pedagogical and Content Model Necessary to Improve the Educational Process on Mathematics through a Web Application?

This quantitative research aims to analyze the design and implementation of the Web Application on the educational process of the Linear Function (WALF) considering the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge) model and data science. The sample consists of 45 students who studied the Basic Math course at a Mexican university during the 2015 school year. The TPACK model allows the planning and organization of WALF through technological knowledge (HTML and PHP languages), content knowledge (formulas on the linear function and slope) and pedagogical knowledge (data simulation). The results of machine learning (linear regression) with 50%, 60% and 70% of training indicate that the contents of WALF influence the assimilation of knowledge about the identification and evaluation of the linear function. Data science identifies 2 predictive models on the use of WALF in the field of mathematics by means of the decision tree technique. Finally, the TPACK model facilitates the implementation of technological tools and construction of educational virtual spaces through technological, content and pedagogical knowledge.

Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander Student Progression through Community College: A Disaggregated Transcript Analysis

Background/Context Research on the postsecondary education of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) students has typically focused on attainment within four-year colleges and neglected the experiences of API students in community colleges. However, many API students pursuing postsecondary education, particularly Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander (SEAPI) students, do so through U.S. community colleges. The progress and achievement of these students in community college remains largely unstudied, due in part to the limited availability of disaggregated data. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study (1) To what extent do API students, and specifically SEAPI students, achieve community college progress milestones, such as enrollment, completion of gatekeeper courses, and attainment of degree- and transfer-applicable credits? (2) How are these students progressing through developmental math? Research Design We examine the academic progress of API students using transcript data from a large California community college district. The disaggregated race/ethnicity data allow us to focus on oft-overlooked API subgroups. Focusing on SEAPI students, we analyze momentum towards key college persistence and completion milestones. We also track progression through developmental math education, one of the key barriers community college students face in completing community college. Findings In our disaggregated transcript analysis, we find that SEAPI students are less likely than their peers to achieve college milestones such as completing math courses and earning the degree-applicable units necessary for degree completion or transfer. Seeking explanations for these differences within the context of developmental education, we observe that SEAPI students are significantly less likely than their peers to attempt developmental math courses, though the data suggest they are more likely to complete courses when they do attempt them. These relationships hold after controlling for differences in the demographic characteristics of these students. Conclusions/Recommendations These findings point towards non-academic and institutional explanations for lower rates of college persistence and completion and offer direction for policy efforts and institutional practice to support these students.