Search results for " Overview"
showing 10 items of 155 documents
Theoretical and Empirical Description of Phases in the Proving Processes of Undergraduates
2018
International audience; In the presented study we adopt a process-oriented perspective on proving in order to gain further insights into relevant actions and typical obstacles in undergraduates' approaches to proving. The primary aim is to theoretically and empirically describe different phases, understood as bunches of intentionally closely related actions of proving. Therefore, we suggest a theoretical model of the proving process and confirm empirically that it can be used as an analytical tool for proving approaches. Based on this model, several proving processes have been analysed. In this paper we present first findings regarding the contribution of each phase to proof construction as…
Engaging with feedback: How do students remediate errors on their weekly quiz
2018
International audience; Maths for Business is a first-year mathematics module for approximately 500 non-mathematics specialists. It has continuous assessment consisting of ten weekly quizzes, worth 40% of the final mark. In 2016/17, students who did not receive the maximum five marks on their weekly quiz were offered the opportunity to resubmit their quiz, with correction(s) and an explanation of their error(s), for one additional mark. We refer to this process as ‘remediation'. In this paper, we examine how students remediate their errors in order to identify features of a ‘good' remediation. These features are identification, description, and correction of errors. By analysing a subset of…
Comparing male and female students’ self-efficacy and self-regulation skills in two undergraduate mathematics course contexts
2018
International audience; Students' efficacy beliefs have a positive influence on students' academic achievement and retention, especially for female students. These beliefs are closely linked to students' ability to regulate their learning. In this quantitative study, students' self-efficacy and self-regulation of learning are compared in two university mathematics courses that differ in content but also in their pedagogical setting: one is a more traditional lecture-based course, and the other course is taught with the Extreme Apprenticeship (XA) method. The analysis is based on the same cohort of students in the two contexts (N=91). The results suggest that students have higher self-effica…
Students' usage patterns of video recorded lectures in an undergraduate mathematics course
2018
International audience; It is customary for some universities to offer recordings of live lectures to students. Whether this improves learning and academic performance is debated in the literature. As with most technology, correct usage can lead to increased academic performance, but there are also usage patterns that can be considered counter productive, especially for learning mathematics. In order to investigate patterns in students' usage of such online recorded live lectures, we analyze log files from a server holding the recordings of an undergraduate mathematics course. This poster presents results from the statistical analysis and discusses some of the usage patterns found in light …
Engineering students' engagement with resources in an online learning environment
2018
International audience; This study explores engineering students' interactions with different resources in an online learning environment. The constituent resources of this environment involve MyMathLab which is an online interactive system for practicing mathematics, the tutorial videos, and the textbook. We conducted a qualitative case study to observe a small group of undergraduate engineering students interacting with the resources in a Calculus course. Employing the documentational approach to didactics, we identified several techniques while participants used resources to practice mathematics in MyMathLab environment. We discuss the pragmatic and epistemic value of the identified tech…
Predictors of performance in engineering mathematics
2018
International audience; Mathematics in university courses was identified as a main obstacle for engineering students in the beginning of their study. Since difficulties with mathematics could lead to a dropout, our research aims to analyse students' profiles referring to individual characteristics that allow identifying possible risks for students' achievement or success in the first year of study. As a first step to identify possibly risky profiles, we started to find possible predictors of students' performance. For this, we give a short overview of the research state and our derived research interest. We discuss theoretical constructs that are possibly crucial characteristics of students…
Discussing Mathematical Learning and Mathematical Praxeologies from a Subject Scientific Perspective
2018
International audience; This programmatic contribution discusses the link between concepts from Anthropological Theory of Didactics (ATD) and the “subject-scientific point of view” according to Holzkamp (1985, 1993). The main common concern of ATD and the subject-scientific approach is to conceptualize and analyse “objects” like “institutionalized mathematical knowledge” and “university” not as conditions that cause reactions but essentially as meanings in the sense of generalized societal reified action possibilities. The link of both approaches is illustrated by the issue of “real numbers” in the transition from school to university: Hypotheses are derived for further actual-empirical res…
Who Becomes U.S. Mathematics Teachers: A Longitudinal Analysis of First-time Praxis® II Mathematics Content Knowledge Examinees
2018
International audience; The U.S. uses the Praxis® tests to measure academic skills and the subject-specific content knowledge needed to be a teacher. This study examined Praxis® Mathematics Content Knowledge scores from 2006 to 2016 to describe patterns in who are becoming certified to teach mathematics in the country. Longitudinal analyses were used to discern patterns in the demographics of examinees and trends in exam performance across several demographic characteristics. The results reveal substantial differences in performance and pass rates between examinees of different genders, races, undergraduate majors, undergraduate GPAs, and census regions. From our analyses, we suggest severa…
From single to multi-variable Calculus: a transition?
2018
International audience; We recently used the notion of praxeology from the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic to model the knowledge that is necessary for students to learn in order to succeed in an undergraduate multivariable Calculus course. We considered the presence and absence of elements of the knowledge to be taught, as proposed by curricular documents, in the knowledge to be learned, as indicated by final exams. Our results indicate that the mathematical activities expected of students at this level align with the activities observed in differential and integral Calculus, where exercise-driven assessments set students' work mainly in the recognition of types of tasks and recolle…
A study of transitions in an undergraduate mathematics program
2018
International audience; In this paper, we introduce an in-progress study of the transitions students face as they advance in their mathematics courses. Previous work has discussed the changes that occur in the transition from high school to university. With regards to the knowledge students are expected to learn, however, significant similarities have been noted: to do well in introductory university courses, students can learn to solve a particular subset of tasks through routinized techniques, with limited awareness of the supporting mathematical theory. In contrast, students in advanced courses are required to work with and on that theory. The first stage of our project aims to better un…