Dennis Pearl is Professor of Statistics at Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE). He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. This interview took place via email on November 18-29, 2016, and provides Dennis Pearl's background story, which describes…

Two sections of a college discrete mathematics class were taught using cooperative learning techniques throughout the semester. The 33 students attending these sections were randomly assigned into groups of three. Their final examination consisted of an individual and group blended examination where students worked in their groups and discussed…

Mathematics teachers interact with resources of various kinds in their work in and out of class. The documentational approach of didactics is a theoretical approach that has been elaborated to investigate these interactions and their consequences in terms of teachers' practice and teachers' beliefs in particular. According to this approach, using…

To further understand student thinking in the context of combinatorial enumeration, we examine student work on a problem involving set partitions. In this context, we note some key features of the multiplication principle that were often not attended to by students. We also share a productive way of thinking that emerged for several students who…

This paper explores the viability and development of the first edition of the researcher's mathematical card game, Groups, as a learning tool for elementary group theory, a topic in abstract algebra. "Groups" was play-tested by six undergraduate students in late 2016 who provided feedback on "Groups" from both utility-centric…

Storytelling is an engaging way through which lived experience can be shared and reflected upon, and a tool through which difference, diversity--and even conflict--can be acknowledged and elaborated upon. Narrative approaches to research bring the richness and vibrancy of storytelling into how data is collected and interpretations of it shared. In…

While 'flipped' classrooms have been heralded as a valuable tool for student learning, little is known about the process by which students learn from the out-of-class resources. This study investigates 12 undergraduate students' sense-making activities while watching videos about topics in introductory statistics. Analysis of interview data…

The purpose of this study is to examine how knowledge of astronomy can enhance college-level learning situations involving mathematics. The fundamental symbiosis between mathematics and astronomy was established early in the 17th century when Johannes Kepler deduced the 3 basic laws of planetary motion. This mutually harmonious relationship…

Blind and visually impaired students who attend community colleges face challenges in learning mathematics (Forrest, 2010). Scoy, McLaughlin, Walls, and Zuppuhaur (2006) claim these students are at a disadvantage in studying mathematics due to the visual and interactive nature of the subject, and by the way mathematics is taught. In this…

The importance of learning mathematics can not be separated from its role in all aspects of life. Communicating ideas by using mathematics language is even more practical, systematic, and efficient. In order to overcome the difficulties of students who have insufficient understanding of mathematics material, good communications should be built in…

Flipped instruction is becoming more common in the United States, particularly in mathematics classes. One of the defining characteristics of this increasingly popular instructional format is the homework teachers assign. In contrast to traditional mathematics classes in which homework consists of problem sets, homework in flipped classes often…

A growing body of literature has identified quantitative and covariational reasoning as critical for secondary and undergraduate student learning, particularly for topics that require students to make sense of relationships between quantities. The present study extends this body of literature by characterizing an undergraduate precalculus…

Deborah Nolan is Professor of Statistics and holds the Zaffaroni Family Chair in Undergraduate Education at the University of California-Berkeley, where she has also served as Associate Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. This interview…

The central goals of most introductory linear algebra courses are to develop students' proficiency with matrix techniques, to promote their understanding of key concepts, and to increase their ability to make connections between concepts. In this article, we present an innovative method using adjacency matrices to analyze students' interpretation…

Objective: Given the current concern across the United States with improving community-college student outcomes, particularly in developmental education, understanding what students encounter inside developmental education classrooms is a necessary first step. Method: Drawing on data from a study of teaching practices inside developmental math…