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<p> This study sought to provide a preliminary examination of the relationship between the implementation of Guided Math and student achievement in Title I schools as measured by the percentage of students who met or exceeded the standard for the Georgia Mathematics CRCT. The study examined data from thirty Title I elementary schools in one suburban Atlanta school district. The percentage of students who met or exceeded the standard on the Math CRCT increased from 2010 to 2011, after one year of Guided Math implementation, suggesting that Guided Math is working to close the achievement gap in the area of mathematics among African American and Hispanic/Latino students as well as economically disadvantaged students. However, there was not a statistically significant difference in the percentage of students who met or exceeded the standard from 2010 to 2011, p = 0.435, where significance occurs at p &lt; 0.05. Because this study was a preliminary study to determine the results of implementing a Guided Math program after one year of implementation, the cohorts used for this study should be followed for several more years to see if their academic achievement continues to increase. Also, similar studies should be conducted on larger scale over longer periods of time in order to obtain a global picture of the effects of Guided Math on mathematics achievement</p>

<p> It is a well-documented finding that high school students in schools across the nation, including California, fail to achieve at the proficient level in mathematics, based on standardized test scores. The purpose of this research study was to compare the findings of students taught using traditional instructional methodologies versus cooperative learning methodologies. The study was conducted in four ninth grade Algebra I classes on a South Los Angeles high school campus, which has 1,700 students. Of the student population, 110 students participated in the study. The researcher utilized descriptive statistical analysis as a means to review previous student standardized test scores to determine baseline performance. After the treatment, a district adopted assessment was administered and used as a post-test to gather quantitative data to compare the scores of students who were taught using cooperative learning methodologies versus those who were taught using traditional methodologies in Algebra I.</p>

<p> In a national context of high failure rates in freshman calculus courses, the purpose of this study was to understand who is struggling, and why. High failure rates are especially alarming given a local environment where students have access to a variety of academic, and personal, assistance. The sample consists of students at Colorado State University (CSU) who attended a course in freshman calculus from Fall 2007 to Fall 2012. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was used in this study. </p><p> Using data from CSU's Registrar's Office and Mathematics department, descriptive statistics highlighted several student attributes worth pursuing. Fall and spring cohorts have a different make up and different outcomes. Hence this study concentrated on the fall cohort, which comprises mainly of freshmen. The combination of attributes that produced the strongest prediction of student's final result in calculus were Colorado Commission on Higher Education index scores, CSU Mathematics department placement test scores, and calculus repeat status (<i>R²</i>=.30, <i>n</i>=1325). For Fall 2012, these attributes were combined with student motivation and student strategies constructs, measured using the MSLQ instrument. The combination giving the strongest prediction of student's first mid-term examination results (<i>R²</i>=.34, <i>n</i>=124) included CSU Mathematics department placement test scores, along with MSLQ constructs test anxiety, and self-efficacy for learning and performance. However, using logistic regression only 38.7% of the students who failed were correctly predicted to fail. </p><p> Former students of CSU's calculus course aimed at freshmen STEM students were interviewed or surveyed, in an attempt to probe how students experience this course. Several common elements emerged. Students were dedicating vast amounts of time to this course. There was a common belief this course could be passed if the student worked hard enough. The difference between those who succeeded and those who did not appeared to relate to how this study time was spent. Those who floundered often struggled to locate appropriate help, although they were quite aware they needed assistance. Many of those interviewed also avoided working with other students. Reasons cited ranged from claims of being individual learners, to frustration at finding a group who had the same study goals. Some non-traditional students were also alienated by the prospect of working with `teenagers'. </p><p> Two other results from the analysis of student interviews suggested reanalyzing the quantitative data and including student's prior history with mathematics, as well as if the student was non-traditional. The combination of attributes that gave the strongest relationship (<i>R²</i>=.40, <i> n</i>=101) were CSU Mathematics department placement test results, combined with MSLQ constructs test anxiety, self-efficacy for learning and performance, organization, as well as the student's own appraisal of the quality of mathematics teaching they received in high school. However, the ability to accurately predict if a student will fail was minimal. </p><p> Focusing on students who do fail, three groups of students of interest were isolated: those who have yet to declare their major, 'non-traditional' students, particularly those enrolled in the eight a.m. class, and, curiously, those students who choose to enroll in the ten a.m. class.</p>

<p> With more and more focus on accountability, algebra achievement has become a major focus of math curriculum developers. In many states, students are expected to pass standardized Algebra achievement tests in order to satisfy graduation requirements.</p><p> The purpose of this study was to identify teacher qualities and teaching qualities linked to teacher effectiveness in 7th-grade Algebra I Honors. This study examined two aspects of teachers, teacher quality and teaching quality. Teacher quality refers to the characteristics that teachers possess and teaching quality refers to what teachers do in the classroom to foster student learning. For this study, teacher quality included teacher professional preparation characteristics and teacher knowledge. Also, aspects of teaching quality that promote conceptual understanding in Algebra were examined.</p><p> In this mixed methods study, quantitative data were used to determine a relationship between teacher qualifications and student achievement. Qualitative data were used to gain an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of teaching quality.</p><p> Based on the findings of this study, in this group of teachers, there is a relationship between teacher quality and teaching effectiveness; however it is very limited and only based on participation in two specific workshops. The difference between more and less effective teachers in this study lies in teaching quality, what teachers do in the classroom, as opposed to teacher quality, what those teachers bring with them to the classroom.</p><p> The findings of this study indicate that elements of teaching quality are more indicative of teacher effectiveness than elements of teacher quality among teachers in the study. Although there was some evidence of a relationship between elements of teacher quality and teacher effectiveness, there were clear differences in teaching quality among more effective and less effective teachers in this study.</p>

<p> This study investigated elementary school teachers' conceptions of their beliefs and expectations of African American students, their pedagogical practices, and the rationale for choosing the pedagogical practices for grades 3 through at Star Maker Elementary. The researcher employed a mixed methodology. The Math Teacher of African American Students Inventory (MT-ABSI) served as the quantitative method. Frequency analysis was employed to analyze the survey. Qualitative methods included two focus group interviews and lesson plans analysis. The researcher employed thematic coding to analyze the qualitative methods. Although the results from the MT-ABSI indicated that teachers had low level beliefs and expectations of their African American elementary students' ability in mathematics, the teachers professed to have high beliefs and expectations and communicate them to their students by using real world experiences in their mathematics classes, providing extra help outside of the mathematics class, and expressing their expectations verbally and non verbally. Further results of the survey indicated that teachers professed to implement some best practices in mathematics classroom than other. These best practices included the use of manipulatives and informing students of state standards. Overall, this is in agreement with the focus group interviews and lesson plans with special emphasis on differentiating instruction, professional development, and lesson plans cycle. There rationale for choosing the pedagogical practices included building background, learners' preference, and reinforcement and advancement of skills.</p>

This thesis is an introductory unit to the computational sciences for the high school level. This unit will attempt to give the reader an idea of what the computational sciences consist. It will attempt to explain, through examples of early algorithms and later advancements, how and why algorithmic improvements are developed. Because of its focus toward math teachers and students, the algorithms included will be primarily mathematical in nature, but will include applications in other areas of science and industry. The algorithms included involve solving systems of linear equations, finding solutions to nonlinear equations, linear regression and linear programming. We also attempted to give some background on computer numbers and error. The goal is for the reader to come away with the knowledge of what is computational science, why is it necessary, and why is it difficult. In the end, it is hoped that as teachers become better informed in the area of computational science, more students will be encouraged to enter the field of research in mathematics. It is also hoped that teachers will be better prepared to answer questions from the students as to applications and "When am I ever going to use this."

This paper looks in detail at the algorithms used by the Texas Instruments TI-83 calculator to calculate the square root of x, the solution to Ax = b and the trigonometric functions sine and cosine. What is exciting about these algorithms is that for various reasons, TI uses techniques that are not necessarily well-known or frequently used by today's numerical analysis community. I have written the explanations of these algorithms in such a way that high school math teachers as well as bright high school students searching for enrichment may use them.

<p> Many students enter college inadequately prepared to take college-level math courses like College Algebra, and as a consequence must take one or more developmental math courses. It is becoming increasingly common for colleges to offer math courses online, including various developmental math courses including Intermediate Algebra. Many computer-assistive technologies exist, some coupled with mathematics textbooks, to purportedly help students learn mathematics better. These technologies are often used in online developmental math courses, and in developmental math course taught in the traditional face-to-face classroom. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the use of technology in Intermediate Algebra courses taught through regular and blended instruction, online, in the traditional classroom supplemented with technology, and in the traditional classroom. The independent variable was the type of instruction received but students were not randomly assigned to the three types of instruction, as they were free to take whichever instruction they chose. The dependent variables were the final course grades of those who completed the course, and a comparison of the rate of course completion, versus withdrawing or failing for all students enrolled in the course past the first week drop/add period. Dummy variables of 1 and 0 were assigned to completing and not completing the course, respectively. </p><p> An analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. There was no statistically significant difference in the course grades of those who took the courses in the three types of instruction; nor was there any statistically significant difference in the rate of course completion in the three types of instruction. </p>

<p> Se analizaron los discursos docentes en tres clases de nivel universitario. La teor&iacute;a que se propone destaca la importancia de una identidad discursiva de negociaci&oacute;n para crear las condiciones que favorezcan la construcci&oacute;n de significados. Los discursos docentes flexibles y democr&aacute;ticos contribuyen a aumentar la motivaci&oacute;n de los estudiantes para crear discursos propios, negociar normas socio matem&aacute;ticas y crear una cultura de reflexi&oacute;n e investigaci&oacute;n. Estas caracter&iacute;sticas de los discursos promueven la discusi&oacute;n de argumentos intersubjetivos que contribuyen a una comprensi&oacute;n compartida de los temas bajo estudio. Los silencios reflexivos, el tono coloquial, la pregunta ret&oacute;rica y el lenguaje social inclusivo, entre otros aspectos, contribuyen a consolidar un proyecto de influencia mediante el cual se promueven las construcciones de conocimiento. En el caso espec&iacute;fico de la noci&oacute;n de variaci&oacute;n, las construcciones de los estudiantes se pueden apoyar con un discurso simple y directo que se ancle en procesos de tanteo y error, con atenci&oacute;n al registro semi&oacute;tico num&eacute;rico y a la negociaci&oacute;n de palabras claves para describir el cambio.</p>