This study looks at the impact of college students' writing on a regular basis about mathematical concepts. Specifically we examine the effect of this practice on performance and attitude while controlling for confounding factors. Two professors and a total of 97 students in four different classes participated in the study. Students in the…

One of the many roles of two year community colleges in the United States is to bridge the gap between secondary school and college for students who graduate from high school with weak mathematics skills that prevent them from enrolling in college level mathematics courses. At community colleges remedial or developmental mathematics courses review…

Concern has been expressed that many commencing undergraduate mathematics students have mastered skills without conceptual understanding. A pilot study carried out at a leading Australian university indicates that a significant number of students, with high tertiary entrance ranks, have very limited understanding of the concept of function,…

This study examined how mathematical modeling activities within a collaborative group impact on students' perceived 'value' of mathematics. With a unified framework of Makiguchi's theory of 'value', mathematical disposition, and identity, the study identified the elements of the value--beauty, gains, and social good--with the observable evidences…

In the Fall semester of 2009, I taught a first-year course that focused on skills required to successfully complete undergraduate research. This paper will discuss the Simpson College first-year course requirements, my course goals, the graph theory topics covered, student feedback, and instructor reflection.

The ability to understand and implement calculations required for molarity and dilution computations that are routinely undertaken in the laboratory are essential skills that should be possessed by all students entering an undergraduate Life Sciences degree. However, it is increasingly recognized that the majority of these students are ill…

This study examines how collective activity related to multiplication evolved over several class sessions in an elementary mathematics content course that was designed to foster prospective elementary teachers' number-sense development. We document how the class drew on as-if-shared ideas to make sense of multidigit multiplication in terms of…

This paper describes the mathematical journey of a mature aged nursing student as she struggles to become more academically numerate. Within the paper, academic numeracy is defined around three features: competence, confidence and critical awareness of both the context of mathematics and students' own relationship with mathematics. It then uses…

Students attend mathematics courses in Turkey for totally 11 years, throughout education life ranging from primary school to university, including eight years in primary education and three years in secondary education (four years based on new arrangement); however, level of mathematic knowledge of students is upsetting when they reach university…

Students taking developmental mathematics courses resist attempting word problems when they are presented to them. Although word problems can help students contextualize learning, develop better understanding of the concepts and apply world knowledge, they constitute an impediment to students' progress in developmental mathematics courses. A…

A college mathematics placement test with 25 basic algebra items and 15 calculus readiness items was administered to 1572 high school seniors, and first college mathematics course grades were obtained for 319 of these students. Test results indicated that more than two thirds of the high school graduates were not college ready, and the test…

Basic arithmetic forms the foundation of the math courses that students will face in their undergraduate careers. It is therefore crucial that students have a solid understanding of these fundamental concepts. At an open-access university offering both two-year and four-year degrees, incoming freshmen who were identified as lacking in basic…

Math self-concept (MSC) is considered an important predictor of the pursuit of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Women's underrepresentation in the STEM fields is often attributed to their consistently lower ratings on MSC relative to men. Research in this area typically considers STEM in the aggregate and does not account…

Unit conversion need not be boring. If students see that the skill is necessary, both their motivation to learn and their appreciation of the process can be enhanced. As a result, students become actively engaged and construct understanding and computational skills that they will retain over time. The activity described here makes use of scale…

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a postbaccalaureate comprehensive university in the Midwest. In 2005, SIUE embarked on a challenging journey of general education reform. A review of the current general education program revealed that it is possible for a student to graduate from SIUE without taking a quantitative course. Hence,…