Math Courses Research Articles

APPLICATION OF MACHINE LEARNING MODELS IN ENROLLMENT AND STUDENT TRAINING AT VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITIES

In Vietnam, since 2015, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam has decided to abolish university entrance exams and advocates the use of high school graduation exam results of candidates for admission to go to universities. The 2015 and 2016 exam questions for the Math exam are the essay questions. From 2017 up to now, the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet nam has applied the form of multiple-choice exams for Mathematics in the high school graduation exam. There are many mixed opinions about the impact of this form of examination and admission on the quality of university students. In particular, the switch from the form of essay examination to multiple-choice exams led the entire Vietnam Mathematical Association at that time to send recommendations on continuing to maintain the form of essay examination for mathematics. The purposes of this article are analysisand evaluation the effects of relevant factors on the academic performance of advanced math students of university students, and offer solutions to optimize university entrance exam. The data set was provided by Training Management Department and Training Quality Control and Testing Laboratory of the University of Finance – Marketing. This dataset includes information about math high school graduation test scores, learning process scores (scores assessed by direct instructors), and advanced math course end test scores of 2834 students in courses from 2015 to 2019. Linear and non-linear regression machine learning models were used to solve the tasks given in this article. An analysis of the data was conducted to reveal the advantages and disadvantages of the change in university enrollment of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training. Tools from the Python libraries have been supported and used effectively in the process of solving problems. Through building and surveying the model, there are suggestions and solutions to problems in enrollment and input quality assurance. Specifically, in the preparation of entrance exams, the entrance exam questions should not exceed 61-66 % of multiple choice questions.

PLUM: Placement, Learning, and Understanding Math; Empowering Students Toward General Education Quantitative Reasoning Course Success

ABSTRACT Although designed with good intent, remedial math courses have delayed or terminated many students’ college careers. Taking remedial courses can delay enrollment into courses for their major, or may, psychologically, result in students feeling unprepared for college. Despite the original intentions of developmental math programs, there is a growing body of evidence that remedial math courses are not effective in improving outcomes for students with the weakest math skills. With the elimination of remedial math courses, a multiprogram effort, PLUM (Placement, Learning, and Understanding Math) was created to empower students with sufficient knowledge and to detail a pathway to be successful in their quantitative reasoning courses. This was accomplished by tools to inform and empower first-time college students. After a brief historical background of the problems to be addressed, the philosophy and design of PLUM is detailed.

Case studies: learning strategy incorporating Lego Education in the seventh-grade math course at the school

This article presents reflections on the use of case studies that revolve around the student’s environment to use it as an input in the development of the mathematics course in the seventh grades at the “Isidro Caballero Delgado” school in Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia. With this experience, it can be determined that the use of robotics prototypes in mathematics is a support tool as a pedagogical strategy in the student’s learning process, strengthening not only the academic but also their comprehensive training. That is why students use the construction of the prototypes not only to learn mathematical concepts for better understanding, analysis, and critical reasoning but also to develop technical language in an empirical way giving answers to the laws of physics in the prototype or its function. This work is part of doctoral research where 60 students of the experimental group participated. The structure of the document contains a first section with the introduction, second section where the methodology and the applied strategy are detailed; in section third the results obtained are mentioned; and finally, in fourth section, the conclusions and possible recommendations are presented.

A Synopsis of Online Testing Integrity in a General Education Math Course: A Correlational Study

Online education is expected to grow, bringing new challenges. One of the biggest challenges concerns the validity of online assessments. Questions arise about cheating, including whether or not the person taking the assessments is the student registered for the course. Studies have tried to determine the amount of cheating in online assessments using student self-reporting. Concern about the validity of these studies has led to quantitative studies attempting to determine the level of cheating in online classes by comparing unproctored online classes against proctored classes. This quantitative quasi-experimental study uses such an approach, comparing test scores and the amount of time online unproctored students spend on exams against test scores and the amount of time spent on exams by students proctored in a testing center and by students proctored online using software. The data for each of the three groups, online-unproctored, testing-center-proctored, and software-proctored, were collected for each of the three unit exams, with data samples over 1,000 for each group on each test. The means of the exam scores of the unproctored online students were similar to the means of the exam scores of the other two groups, but the means for the amount of time the unproctored online students spent on the exams were significantly greater than were the means of the time spent by students in the either of the other two groups. The increased amount of time spent by the unproctored students likely indicated students looked up answers during the tests.

Did consequential accountability policies decrease the share of visual and performing arts education in U.S. public secondary schools during the No Child Left Behind era?

It has been asserted that the test-based accountability of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) increased instruction in tested subject areas reading and math, leading to reductions in arts education. We tested this using two waves of data, before and after NCLB implementation, in a difference-in-differences design. The analyses indicated that the total teacher workforce increased substantially during this time period, while the percentage of reading and math educators remained constant, leading to an overall increase in the teacher corps for these subjects. In contrast, the percentage of music and visual arts educators decreased during this period, leading to a decrease in their numbers. Average subject-specific teaching loads increased across all of these subjects. The result was substantial increases in the number of reading and math courses taught, combined with overall stability in the number of arts courses. However, comparisons across states with varying implementation of test-based school accountability prior to NCLB failed to show a relationship between such accountability and changes in the percentages and teaching loads of reading, math, and arts educators. Thus, at least in terms of cross-state comparisons, changes in these outcomes cannot be attributed to state-specific changes in accountability brought on by the introduction of NCLB.

Yenilikçi Eğitim Kurumları İçin Rasch Metodu Temelli Değerlendirme

Generating high-quality questions is one of the most significant things to improve learning process quality. One of the contemporary methods of developing high-quality questions is the Rasch Method because of superiority for scale development. The most important advantage of the Rasch method is that it allows the measurement of item calibration which is independent of a person's ability. At the same time, it allows the measurement of a person's ability which is independent of item difficulty. In this way, instructors can criticize the quality of their questions, and educational institutions can update their own assessment systems for higher quality and innovative education. This study aims to be a guide that will meet this need of instructors based on the Rasch method. This approach makes it possible for well-qualified items can be used throughout the learning process to improve the student’s learning experience. Thus it is possible to realize the most appropriate content and test design which is necessary for personalized education. On the other hand, it can analyze items psychometric properties and can improve the quality of evaluation systems for the continuous improvement system of future educational institutions. This study evaluated the properties of mathematics items within the test which is applied during term using the Rasch Model. The test was developed for use within a math course which used a modular approach based on learning objects. Results have been evaluated with a view to making recommendations for the improvement of the test psychometric properties. This approach not only enables course developers to evaluate the quality of their test in term but also provides useful information about their own process performance during the e-learning process and their own ability. Due to enable analyzing the student's ability while the e-learning process ongoing, it is possible to correct one's deficiencies. In this study, answers given to 20 items, provided by 62 students of the Internet and Network Technologies distance education program at the level of the associate degree in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year, were examined. Measurement reports, fit statistics, reliabilities were calculated by the Winstep package program.

Agility and Assessment in the Age of COVID‐19: How Fast Can a Community College Dance?

Agility and Assessment in the Age of COVID‐19: How Fast Can a Community College Dance?

The Equity Cost of Inter-Sector Math Misalignment: Racial and Gender Disparities in Community College Student Outcomes

ABSTRACT Using linked high school and community college records for students in a large metropolitan area in California, we explore what happened to students who experienced inter-sector math misalignment (ISMM). These students were deemed “college ready” by high school standards but were placed in remedial/developmental math courses when they enrolled in a local community college. We disaggregate ISMM by gender and race/ethnicity, and we conduct analyses to determine whether certain students are more likely to experience ISMM than others. We find an equity cost to ISMM, with female students, Black students, and Latina/o/x students significantly more likely to encounter ISMM, even after controlling for academic achievement in high school. Inverse probability weighting analyses indicate those who experienced ISMM may have been discouraged by the experience. They were less likely to complete transfer-level math courses and 30 degree-applicable credits, and completed fewer degree-applicable credits overall. ISMM was particularly detrimental to Black students, indicating an equity cost to math misalignment. The findings suggest improving alignment between high schools and community college standards may reduce racial/ethnic inequities in the transition to college and college outcomes.

Aprendizaje de la programación con estrategia “divide and conquer” vs. Sin estrategia “divide and conquer”

El aprendizaje de la programación de computadores es una invitación permanente a docentes ingenieros para buscar mecanismos, teorías y modelos que lo faciliten y, de paso, que simplifiquen la resolución de problemas a partir del aprovechamiento del pensamiento computacional. El concepto de función y la estrategia “divide and conquer” se han ido convirtiendo en un camino que facilita la asimilación y aplicación de la programación dentro del paradigma funcional y, al tiempo, simplifica el aprendizaje de otros paradigmas de programación. El presente artículo está basado en una investigación realizada en paralelo con grupos de Programación I Paradigma Funcional a lo largo de los últimos 6 semestres en el programa Ingeniería de Sistemas y Computación. Los resultados son significativamente diferentes si se comparan los grupos en los cuales se adoptó la estrategia “divide and conquer” con los resultados de aquellos con los cuales se trabajó una sola función que incluyera todo el proceso lógico de resolución de un problema. Se concluye que es mucho más conveniente atomizar una solución algorítmica computacional basada en funciones que pensar dicha solución en un solo cuerpo lógico, independiente del paradigma de programación.

HIGH SCHOOL CHOICES AND THE GENDER GAP IN STEM

Women are less likely than men to graduate with a degree in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). We use detailed administrative data for a recent cohort of Ontario high school students, combined with data from the province's university admission system, to analyze the sources of this gap. We show that entry to STEM programs is mediated through an index of STEM readiness that depends on end‐of‐high school courses in math and science. Most of the gender gap in STEM entry can be traced to differences in the share of college entrants who are STEM‐ready; only a small share is attributable to differences in the choice of major conditional on readiness. We then use high school course data to decompose the gender gap in STEM readiness into two channels: one reflecting the gap in the fraction of high school students with the necessary prerequisites to enter STEM, the other arising from differences in the overall fractions of females and males who enter university. The gender gap in the fraction of males and females with STEM prerequisites is small. The primary driver of the gap in STEM readiness is the low rate of university entry by nonscience‐oriented males. (JEL I21, 28, I20)

Análise dos projetos políticos pedagógicos dos cursos de licenciatura em matemática do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, no que diz respeito à Etnomatemática

O presente artigo relata uma pesquisa realizada nos projetos políticos pedagógicos de curso das licenciaturas presenciais de matemática que não estão com possibilidade de extinção, do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, em um estudo documental desenvolvido sob abordagem qualitativa, com o objetivo de analisar esses projetos no que diz respeito à Etnomatemática. Acreditamos que a Etnomatemática possa ser mais um significativo artifício na formação inicial e continuada de professores, assim como uma possibilidade de se desenvolver um processo de ensino e aprendizagem contextualizado e que valorize as vivências de todos os envolvidos. Nas informações recolhidas foi verificada a incidência da palavra Etnomatemática, identificando onde e quantas vezes se deu a ocorrência do termo, verificando também o contexto em que a mesma ocorreu e analisando se compunha a nomenclatura de uma componente curricular dos cursos de graduação, se nas bibliografias básicas ou complementares ao longo dos Projetos Políticos Pedagógicos ou então na ementa de alguma componente curricular. Verificamos a partir da análise dos dados da pesquisa, que em grande parte das licenciaturas pesquisadas, a Etnomatemática não tem grande destaque, talvez por ainda ser uma temática pouco difundida, nomeando apenas uma componente curricular em uma única instituição.

Data Saves the Whales!

Data Saves the Whales! was developed as part of the Advanced Manufacturing and Prototyping Integrated to Unlock Potential (AMP-IT-UP) project, funded by the National Science Foundation through its Math and Science Partnership program. A central outcome of the AMP-IT-UP project was the development of 1-week modules for core middle school math and science courses that were aligned with best practices as put forth in the Next Generation Science Standards and Standards of Mathematical Practice. Data Saves the Whales! is a middle school mathematics module that is set within a marine ecosystem. It focuses on independent and dependent variables and Cartesian coordinate graphing, and on math practices related to data representation—i.e. how data can be represented in different ways to communicate various messages to an audience. Students engage in a simulated investigation to collect oceanographic data, meant to mimic the experimental procedures used by marine scientists when collecting samples, and learn different methods of graphing the data to effectively communicate their findings. This module features work conducted by the research team of Dr. Ellery Ingall, Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science at Georgia Tech, and integrates math skills with marine science and the concepts of food webs and the interdependence of organisms.

MapOnLearn: The Use of Maps in Online Learning Systems for Education Sustainability

Online learning and teaching have become the primary forms of education during the global pandemic, and online learning systems, which can provide fair educational opportunities for everyone, are increasingly important for sustainability in education. The amount of time a student spends on online learning systems affects the fairness and persistence of sustainability in education. To support personalized learning opportunities, interactive learning, and easy-to-access resources, we propose a map organization and visualization method called MapOnLearn for online learning systems. First, we converted tree-like hierarchical course units (HCUs) and knowledge points (KPs) into a fundamental two-dimensional (2D) map of hierarchically divided polygons and used the map to form containers to manage all learning resources. Then, we used the zoom feature of the map to express the hierarchical structures of knowledge and formulated corresponding rules for displaying information at different levels. Path analysis was applied to express the learning process, and topological processing was adapted to represent the relationships among HCUs and KPs. We developed maps for a high-level math course, a course on data structures, and an English course at a university in China and investigated 264 students and 27 teachers for a semester by using the technology acceptance model (TAM). We found that the map visualization and organization method had a positive impact on the way teachers and students use online learning systems and improved the online learning experience. To attract more students to spend more time on online learning, we hope our method can promote the sustainable development of education.

Failure to Replicate: Testing a Growth Mindset Intervention for College Student Success

Interventions surrounding mindset have recently been applied as a tool for student success in higher education. The current study tested the efficacy of a growth mindset intervention at a university with a diverse student population. Using gateway math and introductory psychology courses, students were randomly assigned to receive a mindset message or one endorsing study skills. Dependent variables were course grade, term GPA, term credit hours earned, and retention to subsequent terms. Analyses using the full sample, minority sample, Pell-eligible, and first-generation college students did not yield meaningful differences in students’ academic success between the intervention and control groups. Further research should investigate why mindset intervention has proven successful with other populations not represented in the present study.

Re-Examining the Public–Catholic School Gap in STEM Opportunity to Learn: New Evidence from HSLS

This paper examines public–Catholic gap in STEM opportunity to learn in the US using Mahalanobis-distance matching and adjacent categories models. Consistent with prior studies, there are significant public–Catholic differences in math and science course sequence level and total credits earned. However, we find that these gaps are largely accounted for by selection processes among students of differing family background. Moreover, we find that the Catholic school advantage in STEM opportunity to learn differs by subject; Catholic school students are more likely to enroll in advanced math courses relative to middle-level courses, while their advantage in science is concentrated in the middle of the course-taking hierarchy.

Exposure to Same-Race or Same-Ethnicity Teachers and Advanced Math Course-Taking in High School: Evidence from a Diverse Urban District

Background/Context Research links advanced mathematics course-taking to important later outcomes, including college graduation and earnings, yet many students fail to progress into higher math courses as they move through high school. Black and Hispanic high school students are less likely than their white peers to take advanced math courses. A complex set of factors inform decisions about student course-taking, but teachers play key roles, including providing information about courses, giving students encouragement, helping students form aspirations (e.g., through role modeling), and serving as gatekeepers via grade assignment and formal recommendations. At the same time, growing empirical evidence suggests that students from different racial/ethnic groups benefit from being taught by teachers with similar demographic backgrounds, which motivates an analysis connecting math teacher–student racial or ethnic congruence with progression into higher math courses in high school. Purpose We investigate the degree to which having a math teacher of the same race or ethnicity predicts subsequent enrollment in more advanced high school math courses, as well as in honors and Advanced Placement (AP) math courses. We also investigate potential mechanisms, including impacts of student–teacher congruence on course grades and standardized test performance, which may in turn predict a higher likelihood of advanced math course enrollment. Setting We examine student-level administrative data from high schools in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth largest school district in the United States. Research Design We estimate the likelihood that a student will take a higher level math course as a function of student–teacher racial/ethnic congruence, plus student, teacher, and classroom characteristics, and school fixed effects. This research design compares later math course-taking between students with and without race/ethnicity-congruent teachers within the same school, holding a variety of other factors constant. We estimate similar models for honors and AP course-taking. We also estimate models for math course grades and end-of-course (EOC) exam scores using school-by-course and student fixed effects. Findings/Results We find that high school students with a same-race or same-ethnicity teacher are more likely to take a higher math course in the next year than other students taking the same course in the same school. Associations are largest for Black students, who are 2 percentage points more likely to advance to a higher math course when taught by a Black teacher. Having a demographically similar teacher is also associated with movement into honors and AP courses in the next term, on average, though results vary by student subgroup. Students receive higher EOC scores and higher grades when taught by a demographically similar teacher, with higher grades even than what would be predicted by their EOC score, particularly in algebra. Conclusions/Recommendations Our analysis contributes to growing evidence on the importance of teacher diversity for outcomes for students from minoritized groups and is among only a very small set of studies that demonstrate teachers’ impacts on student outcomes not just for one year, but also in subsequent years. Our results underscore the importance of efforts to recruit and retain teachers of color, particularly in high schools. We recommend future research to better understand the mechanisms linking diverse teachers to student course-taking outcomes.

TRANSLATING MATHEMATIC TEXT ABILITY OF FIFTH SEMESTER STUDENTS IN MATH AND SCIENCE DEPARTMENT STKIP YPM BANGKO

The aimed of this research is to describe about students’ ability in translating mathematic text as a material in English for Teaching Math Course at fifth semester in Math Education Program, Math and Sciece Department of STKIP YPM Bangko in academic year 2019/2020. This ability to provide students to be bilingual teacher in math subject. This reasearch is descriptive quantitave research. It will be conducted in Math Education Program of STKIP YPM Bangko. The population is fifth semester students consists of 18 students. It uses total sampling, the researcher will use written test as the instruments of collecting data, it consists about translating mathematics operation, translating mathematic problem, and passage about mathematics. The students are asked to translate from target language to sourse language and source language to target language. In analyzing the data, the researcher will use the procedure reduce the data, classify the data, describe the data, and data display. To know about students’ ability in translating mathematics english text, the researcher will use three indicatorss; accuracy, readability and acceptability. It also categories into 4 level mastery; excellent, good, fair, and poor. The result of this research found that Students’ ability in translating mathematic text was excellent. Based on the aspect of mathematic text, mathematic passage was difficult to translate for them, and accuracy indicator was lowest score, they tend to omitted word and change the spelling. It can be suggested to train students to practice more the interaction to the text and use the effective strategy in translation.

Teens learning epidemiology? A cohort study on epidemiology instruction for high school youth

PurposeThe aim of the study was to determine if epidemiology instruction for high school students can improve science literacy skills compared with other science, technology, engineering, and math courses. MethodsThe Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS), a validated measure of scientific inquiry and interpretation, was used to assess the change in students’ (n = 116; 63% female, 36% Asian, 30% Hispanic, 54% 12th grade, 48% mid poverty, and 24% high poverty) science literacy skills based on pre–post performance. ResultsMultilevel models adjusted for individual-level student gender, race-ethnicity, grade level, age, semester, and poverty status showed similar TOSLS performance for physics (β = 0.58; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.44 to 1.61), biology (β = 0.09; 95% CI, −0.82 to 1.00), and statistics (β = −0.76; 95% CI, −1.84 to 0.32), and lower for chemistry (β = −1.09; 95% CI, −2.26 to 0.08) and geology (β = −1.04; 95% CI, −2.06 to −0.02) relative to the reference group, epidemiology. Models testing the interaction of course subject and sociodemographic factors did not show gender differences in TOSLS performance for epidemiology, in contrast with physics (lower in females) and biology (higher in females). ConclusionsStudy findings suggest that epidemiology may be an appropriate method for supporting high school students’ development of science literacy skills, although larger and more nuanced studies are needed.

A Redesign of Precalculus at California State University, Monterey Bay

ABSTRACT With the goal of improving student success, the chancellor of the California State University (CSU) system issued an executive order that required all CSU campuses to eliminate remedial math courses as of Fall 2018 and place all first-year students into appropriate General Education (GE) mathematics/quantitative reasoning courses. The Mathematics and Statistics Department at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) saw this as an opportunity to redesign and improve our General Education courses, including Precalculus. Our redesigned General Education courses are fully coordinated, incorporate reading, and active learning, and all have an associated co-requisite course for students who need additional support. In this article, we share the changes we made to Precalculus, the process our department undertook to make these changes happen, and some of the successes and challenges we encountered during the first semester of implementation.

Top of the Class: The Importance of Ordinal Rank

AbstractThis article establishes a new fact about educational production: ordinal academic rank during primary school has lasting impacts on secondary school achievement that are independent of underlying ability. Using data on the universe of English school students, we exploit naturally occurring differences in achievement distributions across primary school classes to estimate the impact of class rank. We find large effects on test scores, confidence, and subject choice during secondary school, even though these students have a new set of peers and teachers who are unaware of the students’ prior ranking in primary school. The effects are especially pronounced for boys, contributing to an observed gender gap in the number of Maths courses chosen at the end of secondary school. Using a basic model of student effort allocation across subjects, we distinguish between learning and non-cognitive skills mechanisms, finding support for the latter.