Search

The call for "mathematics for all" reaffirms the belief that all students should have equal access, equal educational experiences, and equal educational outcomes. Existing gap in students' mathematics achievement have long been coupled with the demographic categories of race and ethnicity, culture and language, SES and social class, gender and disabilities. Standards-based reform in mathematics education has a goal of high academic standards for all students. The literature review of research on equity implications for mathematics learning outcomes in the context of standards-based reform is presented. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of various equity variables on mathematics outcomes. The review analyzes the factors that contribute to mathematics achievement gap in terms of standards-based reform.

This qualitative case study considers factors such as difficulty of understanding mathematics and poor mathematics practicing strategy under academic factors and lack of family support under social factors as those that contribute to the failure. Many students entering community college have deficiencies in mathematics background and are required to take developmental courses. Despite students' regular attendance and interest in taking developmental mathematics courses, many of them fail these courses. The purpose of this study was to understand and identify major academic and social factors that contribute to the failure of developmental mathematics students. It was done from the perspective of those students who attend class regularly and repeat the same developmental mathematics course several times. Four appendixes present: (1) Interview Protocol; (2) Interview Transcript; (3) Classroom Observation; and (4) List of Codes. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper focuses on using technology to support mathematics instruction. Technologies such as computers and calculators are widely used in the teaching of mathematics. The educators advocate the use of these tools to reduce tiresome computations and tasks so that class time can be more effectively used for learning mathematics. The purpose of this review is twofold: (1) to explore the use of computer and calculator as tools for the mathematics teaching and (2) to analyze their effects on the students' achievement in algebra and calculus. This review of literature from 1990-2006 also addresses the implication of curriculum in an age of computer algebra systems.

Assumptions: Today, when technology has taken its place in almost all classrooms in schools and colleges across the country, there is a need to know how technology "influences the mathematics that is taught and enhances students' learning" (NCTM, 2000, p. 24). Rationale: This presentation describes qualitative study which purpose was to understand the process of mathematics learning by high school graduates, recent Developmental mathematics students, in a technology rich environment. Objectives: The study accesses students' beliefs about the use of graphing calculator (GC) TI-83 and describes students' experiences in learning mathematics with GC. Theoretical framework: The reason for the major impact of electronic technology (ET) on the reform in mathematics education is its effect on the cognitive processes--nature of mathematical thinking and understanding (Heid, 1997). From this perspective, a concept of "cognitive technologies" is used to investigate the impact of technology on mathematics education. Among cognitive tools used in mathematics education are GC. They give students easy access to computational and graphical results (Heid, 1997). Studying the role of GC as a cognitive tool might concentrate on the ways in which students perceive GC as promoting conceptual understanding. Techniques: Multi-case study of mathematics learning of high school graduates, recent Developmental Mathematics students at CCBC-Essex, presents one aspect--the role of GC as a cognitive tool. Results: The presented qualitative study includes an analysis of students' experiences in learning mathematics with GC, as well as students' perceptions related to technology use for specific mathematics topics. Conclusions: The implementing of GC as cognitive tools for mathematics learning is consistent with an emphasis of contemporary school mathematics and Developmental mathematics on the problem solving and modeling. Summary: This presentation describes qualitative study which purpose was to understand the process of mathematics learning by high school graduates, recent Developmental Mathematics students, in a technology rich environment. The study accesses students' beliefs about the use of graphing calculator (GC) TI-83 and describes students' experiences in learning mathematics with GC. Appended are: (1) Guiding questions for the interview; and (2) List of themes with initial codes.

Assumptions: In mathematics learning, one of the considerations in the graphing calculator (GC) use is to understand students' attitude toward calculators. Rationale: This presentation describes design of an assessment instrument of students' attitude toward graphing calculator. Objectives: A pilot study that assessed the effectiveness of the developed instrument was conducted in the Developmental Mathematics classes at CCBC-Essex, MD. Theoretical framework: As a powerful tool, GC are becoming common in mathematics classrooms at all levels (Dick, 1992). Ellington (2003) conducted a meta-analysis of findings from 54 research studies on calculator use in pre-college mathematics classes. She used additional category for analysis that was not included in previous studies. This category was students' attitude toward the use of calculators in mathematics. Techniques: The instrument being developed is the Attitudes to Graphing Calculators (GC) in Mathematics Learning Questionnaire. The best instrument should provide both validity and reliability. In the pilot study that assesses the reliability of the developed instrument, the instrument was administered to a convenience group of 17 students-volunteers of the Developmental Mathematics classes at CCBC-Essex, MD. Results: To calculate statistics for the collected data I've used the CORR procedure from the SAS package (Delwiche & Slaughter, 2004). Reliability indices for all of the measures were calculated using Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient. Conclusions: Based on the positive results of the pilot study, it can be concluded that developed instrument has good internal consistency reliability. Developed instrument can be used to examine the attitudes toward GC in mathematics learning. Summary: In mathematics learning, one of the considerations in the graphing calculator (GC) use is to understand students' attitude toward calculators. This presentation describes design of an assessment instrument of students' attitude toward GC. A pilot study that assessed the effectiveness of the developed instrument was conducted in the Developmental Mathematics classes at CCBC-Essex, MD. Positive result is presented. The Attitudes to Graphing Calculators (GC) in Mathematics Learning Questionnaire is appended.

Today's college ACCUPLACER System's Computerized Placement Test (CPT) plays a major role for determining whether post-secondary students are ready for placement into Arithmetic, Elementary Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, or College Mathematics courses. It is widely used in most college systems in the U.S. This paper discusses some of the issues to be addressed about the assessment and evaluation of CPT such as analyzing the reliability of the test scores and evaluating the validity of CPT. The results of this study suggest that the reliability (or correlation) between Arithmetic and Elementary Algebra test scores is less than Elementary Algebra and College Mathematics test scores. Additional sample data are appended. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)

A major goal of this paper is to document changes that occurred in developmental mathematics classrooms in the community college setting when the graphing calculator (GC) Texas Instruments (TI)-83 was introduced to students. The six-week intervention was conducted during the section of Intermediate Algebra in the Community College Baltimore County (CCBC)-Essex. To measure the effect of GC on student achievement in Intermediate Algebra class, a pretest/post-test and statistical paired t-test (one-tailed) were conducted. To measure student attitudes regarding the use of GC throughout the intervention, pre/post-surveys and statistical paired t-tests (one-tailed) were conducted. The results of the intervention show that there is a significant gain in student achievement and a gain in student attitude toward GC in Intermediate Algebra class with the use of GC. Appended are: (1) Survey Collaborative; and (2) Attitudes toward graphing calculators (GC) in mathematics learning questionnaire. (Contains 2 tables.)