Evaluating the Effects of Changing an Undergraduate Mathematics Core Curriculum which Supports Mathematics-based Programs PDF Download

Author: Richard Douglas West
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 630

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Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309092426
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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This book reviews the evaluation research literature that has accumulated around 19 K-12 mathematics curricula and breaks new ground in framing an ambitious and rigorous approach to curriculum evaluation that has relevance beyond mathematics. The committee that produced this book consisted of mathematicians, mathematics educators, and methodologists who began with the following charge: Evaluate the quality of the evaluations of the thirteen National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported and six commercially generated mathematics curriculum materials; Determine whether the available data are sufficient for evaluating the efficacy of these materials, and if not; Develop recommendations about the design of a project that could result in the generation of more reliable and valid data for evaluating such materials. The committee collected, reviewed, and classified almost 700 studies, solicited expert testimony during two workshops, developed an evaluation framework, established dimensions/criteria for three methodologies (content analyses, comparative studies, and case studies), drew conclusions on the corpus of studies, and made recommendations for future research.

Author: Bonnie Gold
Publisher: MAA Press
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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The collection of 72 articles offers the mathematics teacher suggestions for assessing testing and grading, teaching efficacy, how departments place students into courses, the effectiveness of the major, and the quantitative literacy of the graduating students. Lacks an index. Annotation c. Book New

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Author: Naomi Fisher
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821803832
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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This volume is an outgrowth of a series of programs organized by the Mathematicians and Education Reform (MER) Network between 1990 and 1993. These programs explored the ways in which the mathematical sciences community has responded to educational challenges. Mathematicians who had made a serious commitment to educational reform served as role models, inspiring others to contribute their efforts to this important work. The discussions raised many questions and highlighted many insights about the nature of educational reform and how the mathematics research community can contribute to it. The papers in this volume present perspectives on the future of these efforts, varied examples of how individual mathematicians have become involved in educational reform, and case studies of how the community is responding to the need for reform. Viewing the mathematics culture through the prism of his or her own experience and encounters, each author contributes a valuable piece for the reader to consider in trying to envision what the large picture will be as mathematics education continues to evolve.

Author: Susan L. Ganter
Publisher: Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
ISBN:
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertation abstracts
Languages : en
Pages : 776

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Author: Charles Munter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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One purpose of education research is to develop and rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of programs for supporting students' learning and achievement. The Institute of Education Sciences has amplified that purpose (Shadish & Cook, 2009) and attempted to improve the methodological standards for conducting such work--primarily through the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), which, since 2002, has supported an ongoing effort to synthesize research on the effectiveness of educational interventions, programs, and policies. According to its stringent, methodological standards, only "well-designed and well-implemented" randomized controlled trials and studies employing quasi-experimental designs with equating or matching are included in the WWC's 15 topical syntheses, one of which is mathematics. Despite repeated calls for increased attention to theory in program evaluation for more than 25 years, recent reviews of the literature suggest that the field has seen little change (Confrey & Stohl, 2004; Coryn, Noakes, Westine, & Schrt̲er, 2010; Weiss, 1997). The requirement that evaluators link research designs to the theories underlying the programs they evaluate is not included in the WWC's standards for rigorous evaluations. Given the considerable differences in mathematical goals and theories of learning from which mathematics programs are designed, and the high stakes for students' mathematics learning and academic futures (as well as for the fortunes of program developers), it is important to ask whether the WWC's methodological specifications are sufficient, or whether program evaluation has once again lost (or perhaps never gained) sight of the role of theory in evaluation design and implementation (Bickman, 1987), resulting in overly-constrained and uninterpretable syntheses of otherwise methodologically strong evaluation research (Schoenfeld, 2006). The purpose of this paper is to determine whether calls for theory-based evaluation research have had an impact on the extent to which evaluators of mathematics programs attend to program theory in their design, implementation, and reporting of studies. For each report that met stringent methodological standards (i.e., WWC evidence standards), the authors asked: (1) What type of program theory was articulated (none, sub-theoretical, or theoretical; Lipsey et al., 1985); (2) What was the quality of evaluators' articulation of program theory (entirely implicit, drawn from a limited number of resources such as developer or publisher descriptions, or drawn from multiple resources and situated in the research literature); (3) How was the articulated program theory used in the evaluation; and (4) To what extent does attention to program theory vary by characteristics of the program and evaluator(s), such as the nature of the program's mathematics learning goals and instruction (i.e., back-to-basics, typical, inquiry-based, or blended); type of publication (e.g., peer-reviewed journal or technical report); funding source (e.g., Federal/state agency or publisher/developer); and timing of analysis (i.e., primary or secondary analysis)? Modeled after the WWC's process, every report was examined and coded independently by two individuals employing the same coding scheme, and research questions listed here. The findings of evaluation studies guide the decisions of policy makers at every level, including the adoption of both curriculum materials and intervention programs. These decisions are consequential for students' mathematics learning and academic futures. It is therefore crucial that evaluators "get it right" when assessing the effectiveness of such programs. This analysis indicates that WWC's methodological specifications are inadequate because they overlook understanding and using theory in evaluation design and implementation. In general, evaluation research of mathematics programs needs to improve in its attention to and use of program theory. Tables and figures are appended.

Author: Mathematical Association of America. Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics. Panel on the Impact of Computing on Mathematics Courses
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic data processing
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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