ERIC Number: EJ1100441
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Sep
Pages: 6
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0025-5769
EISSN: N/A
Connecting Research to Teaching: Integrated Curricula and Preparation for College Mathematics
Post, Thomas R.; Monson, Debra S.; Andersen, Edwin; Harwell, Michael R.
Mathematics Teacher, v106 n2 p138-143 Sep 2012
In the early 1990s, after a long series of disappointing results on national and international mathematics achievement tests the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the development of thirteen complete mathematics programs at the elementary school, middle school, and secondary school levels. Many teachers were quite happy with the new curricula and impressed with the levels of student involvement and accomplishment. However, some parents and mathematicians were opposed to them, referring to the new curricula as "fuzzy mathematics." In response, in 2007 NSF funded the Minnesota Mathematics Achievement Project (MNMAP) to explore the empirical relationship between high school mathematics curricula and college-level mathematics performance. MNMAP is a longitudinal program of research. Various subsets of its database of more than 16,000 students from 366 high schools who attended thirty-two four-year regional colleges and universities in the upper Midwest were involved in the MNMAP studies. In this article, the authors will summarize five of these MNMAP studies, each of which used quantitative methodology. All studies were concerned with the efficacy of three first-edition secondary school curricula-- Contemporary Mathematics in Context (Core Plus), Interactive Mathematics Project (IMP), and Mathematics Modeling Our World (MMOW)--as measured by student performance in college mathematics. Each program received an additional grant from NSF to prepare second-edition materials.
Descriptors: Integrated Curriculum, College Mathematics, College Preparation, Statistical Analysis, Meta Analysis, Secondary School Mathematics, Mathematics Curriculum, Predictor Variables, Theory Practice Relationship, Educational Research, Praxis
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-9840; Fax: 703-476-2570; e-mail: NCTM@nctm.org; Web site: http://www.nctm.org/publications/mathematics-teacher/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Minnesota
Grant or Contract Numbers: DRL0627986
IES Cited: ED560919