Conference Program/Abstracts

Abstracts - Poster Session

Thursday, February 21

5:30 – 6:30 PM

Location: Denver Ballroom Pre-function Area

That’s Nice …but is it worth sharing

Daniel Reinholz

Abstract: "Group-worthy" problems (cf. Featherstone et al., 2011) are nontrivial, often have multiple solution paths and require multiple competencies; in short, they provide opportunities for students to engage in meaningful groupwork. In contrast, many standard tasks degenerate into one student “teaching” the other, because the tasks do not have proper affordances to support collaborative learning. I present on "peer-worthy" problems, a set of problems that are useful for pairs of students to work on in settings other than full-blown collaborative groupwork. Peer-worthy problems should satisfy a number of the following criteria; they: (1) are nontrivial, (2) have multiple solution paths, (3) require students to generate examples, and (4) involve explanation. In this poster I contrast student interactions around two problems - one peer-worthy, the other a standard task.

The Flipped Classroom Model for College Algebra: Effects on Student Achievement

Jerry Overmyer

The past few years have seen a substantial rise in the use and interest in a teaching and learning paradigm most commonly known as the flipped classroom. It is called the flipped class model because the whole classroom/homework paradigm is "flipped". In its simplest terms, what used to be classwork (the lecture) is done at home via teacher-created videos and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class. This quantitative research compares 5 sections (n = 144) of college algebra using the flipped classroom methods with 6 sections (n = 181) of traditional college algebra and its effect on student achievement as measured through a common final exam. The data will be analyzed using ANOVA with interactions of the intervention measured with gender and ACT mathematics scores.

An Annotation Tool Designed to Interface with Webwork:
Interpreting Students’ Written Work

Nicole Engelke, Gulden Karakok, and Aaron Wangberg

Abstract: We present how we are using tablets with an open-source online homework system to collect students’ written work to calculus problems. The new whiteboard feature captures all student written work in real time. An annotation tool has also been incorporated into the system. Through this tool, we are examining how students solve chain rule problems and what actions they take to correct their mistakes. At this poster, we will allow users to try out the annotation tool and provide results of how we have used it to date.

Reasoning Abilities that Support Students in Developing Meaningful Formulas to Relate Quantities in an Applied Problem Context

Bethany Fowler, Kristin Frank, Hyunkyoung Yoon and Marilyn Carlson

Abstract: This poster illustrates and describes student thinking when responding to applied problems to relate two quantities that cannot be directly related by a single formula. Students who understood the meaning of the directive to define one quantity in terms of another, and who also conceptualized variables as representing varying values that a quantity can assume were successful in constructing a meaningful formula to relate the values of two quantities that cannot be directly related by a single formula. Students who failed to construct meaningful formulas during their solution process either held the view that a variable is an unknown value to be solved for or could not meaningfully interpret the directive of the problem statement.

Coaching the Coaches: Supporting University Supervisors in the Supervision of Elementary Mathematics Instruction

Stefanie Livers

Abstract: This program evaluation study examines the impact of providing professional development on coaching strategies and mathematics pedagogy to university supervisors’ on their supervision practice and teacher candidates’ instructional practice and beliefs about mathematics. The mixed-methods study was designed to answer the following two questions: What are the effects of training university supervisors in mathematics pedagogy and coaching strategies on their supervision practices of elementary teacher candidates? What are the effects of training university supervisors in mathematics education and coaching strategies on elementary teacher candidates’ instructional practices and their beliefs about mathematics?

The qualitative data consisted of supervisors’ background experience, observations, and interviews. Quantitative data included teacher candidates’ performance on the Reformed Observation Teaching Protocol (RTOP) and belief scores from the Mathematics Beliefs Instrument (MBI). Analysis of the data revealed that university supervisors’ support changed as a result of the professional development, thus changing the beliefs of teacher candidates.