Mastering Mathematics: An Interdisciplinary Approach

TITLE:

Mastering Mathematics: An Interdisciplinary Approach

GRANT RECIPIENTS:

Ginny Peterson-Tennant, SLS, North Campus
gpeterso@mdc.edu
Alice Wong, Mathematics, North Campus
awong@mdc.edu

ABSTRACT:

Using the vehicle of a learning community, students will be taught study skills, test anxiety management skills, and skills for overcoming mathematics anxiety. The targeted students will be enrolled in MAT 0024 and SLS 1536 simultaneously. The goals are to increase passing and retention rates as well as to enhance the study skills of the students in the project.

PROJECT SUMMARY:

This project enabled students to take the skills that they learned and mastered and apply them to subsequent mathematics courses. The professors collaborated and bridged SLS 1535 and MAT 0024 using the vehicle of a learning community. Methods and strategies implemented during the semester involved the learning of skills to combat test anxiety and math anxiety, the construction of detailed note cards to master math concepts, keeping journals on their mathematics experiences, and advising and registering students.
The overall project goals were to increase both the passing and retention rate as well as to increase the study skills of these students.
To help students discover the usefulness of math in both their future careers and in everyday life, we used videotapes, lectures, and written papers on this topic. Both professors taught the students how to create effective note cards to master mathematics concepts. Feedback was given to each individual student to help design and improve his or her note card system.
Drawing upon her background on psychology, one of the professors taught the students strategies for reducing and managing stress, test and math anxiety. These methods were used in their math course and transferred to other courses as well. Students wrote in their journals about their thoughts and feelings regarding test anxiety, the methods they used to overcome test and math anxiety, and how much study time they allotted for their math course each week.
Each student met once with the mathematics professor and once with the SLS professor to monitor the student’s progress and to address any questions or concerns the students had. In addition to the conference, each student was advised and registered by one of the professors for the next semester.
Using a non-intrusive method for assessments, both professors used classroom assessment techniques (CATs) in their classes. We found the use of CATs was particularly beneficial and lent insight to the professor of the mathematics course. Besides using CATs, we also used two separate questionnaires to obtain the students’ qualitative remarks regarding their learning community experience and the meaningful skills they acquired in SLS 1535 and MAT 0024. In addition, we examined our student retention and success rate at the end of the semester.

top>>

PROJECT RESULTS:

Despite a rocky start at the beginning of the semester in which one of the learning community classes was shuffled into four different classrooms within the first 6 weeks of the semester along with numerous registration errors that both professors had to correct at beginning of the academic year, the overall project was a success.
Out of seventeen students enrolled in our learning community, only one student withdrew. He withdrew from all his classes in the first quarter of the semester. By the end of the second conference in November 100% of the students were registered for the next term. 94% of the original 17 students from our learning community are currently enrolled this Spring semester.
The students’ success rate in our learning community project is indicated by the following chart of the final grades in each course:

	SLS 1535	MAT 0024
Student #1	A	S
Student #2	F	P
Student #3	B	S
Student #4	B	S
Student #5	B	S
Student #6	A	S
Student #7	B	S
Student #8	C	P
Student #9	B	P
Student #10	A	S
Student #11	A	S
Student #12	W	W
Student #13	B	P
Student #14	C	S
Student #15	A	S
Student #16	D	P
Student #17	A	S

Eight of these students are currently enrolled in MAT 1033 with the mathematics professor for the Spring term. As indicated by the students’ responses on the two questionnaires, the majority of the students are transferring their knowledge and skills from our learning community to other courses at mdc. Overall, the students’ experience was a positive one. Many indicated that they would take a learning community again and they would recommend a learning experience to another student.

PLANS FOR DISSEMINATION:

We will share our learning community experience with our colleagues on Professional Development Day 2003 at Kendall Campus on March 6, 2003. In our presentation we will discuss the pros and cons of setting up a learning community and share our success and retention rates of this project. The professors have attended two workshops given by Dr. Vincent Tinto, an expert on learning communities, as well as several roundtable discussions to learn and share their experiences with the College community.
Copies of this final report will be disseminated at our respective department meetings at North Campus. Both professors are looking forward to teaching another learning community together in the near future and will continue to promote and support learning communities at the College.

Back to Abstracts Page

top>>