The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the relationships that exist between mathematics anxiety and nurse self-efficacy for mathematics, and the medication calculation performance of acute care nurses. This research used a quantitative correlational research design and involved a sample of 84 acute care nurses, LVNs and RNs, from a suburban private hospital. the participants filled out a Mathematics Anxiety Scale, a Nurse Self-Efficacy for Mathematics Scale and also completed a 20-item medication calculation test. Significant practical and statistical relationships were discovered between the variables utilizing multiple linear regression statistics and commonality analysis. As the Nurse’s Mathematics anxiety score increased the scores on the medication test decreased and the scores on nurse self-efficacy for mathematics scale also decreased. the demographic item of “Hours a nurse worked in one week” had the greatest significance. the more hours a nurse worked the lower their score was on the medication calculation test. This study agrees with others that nurses are not good at mathematics. This study also correlated that as the number of hours worked increased so did the medication calculations errors. and many nurses have a measurable level of anxiety about mathematics and dosage calculations and this may influence calculation ability. Suggestions for further research include refinement of instruments used in study, further differentiation of barriers to successful medication calculation performance, and testing of interventions used to teach, train and evaluate accurate medication administration in nurses.

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As technology becomes more integrated in the classroom, more research is needed to examine its effects on engagement and learning. It is important that we fully explore how students interact with learning technologies and the affordances that these technologies bring to improve engagement and student learning. In this dissertation, I explored the benefits and drawbacks of using dynamic technology in the classroom as an instructional system, support structure, and assessment tool. Iterative design cycles were used to improve the accessibility and user experience of several dynamic technologies in the classroom. Additionally, the incorporation of gamified elements such as points and leaderboards were explored. Preliminary data suggests that gamified elements could lead to higher engagement and elicit behaviors associated with learning. As a result, a series of 4 randomized controlled trials were conducted that explored the intersection of gamification, engagement, and learning. This dissertation is a compilation of those studies with a focus on the development and improvement of learning platforms through an iterative design process and the incorporation of gamified elements. Based on the findings and implications of these studies, several new technologies were designed, developed, and implemented to include these gamification techniques and provide data for both educators and researchers. Recommendations for potential usage and future research are discussed.

The effective degree model has been applied to both SIR and SIS type diseases (those which confer permanent immunity and those which do not, respectively) with great success. The original model considers a large system of ODEs to keep track of the number of infected and susceptible neighbours of an individual. In this thesis, we use a generating function approach on the SIR effective degree model to transform the system of ODEs into a single PDE. This has the advantage of allowing the con- sideration of infinite networks. We derive existence and uniqueness of solutions to the PDE. Furthermore, we show that the linear stability of the PDE is governed by the same disease threshold derived by the ODE model, and we also show the nonlinear instability of the PDE agrees with the same disease threshold. / Graduate

Denna kunskapsöversikt ska bidra till utvidgad förståelse för hur kooperativt lärande kan påverkar elevers motivation till matematiken. Kooperativt lärande är en arbetsmetod där elevers kunskaper utvecklas i samverkan med varandra och läraren.Genom att undersöka internationella och relevanta forskningsartiklar till vår frågeställning har vi kunnat sammanställa ett resultat som vi hoppas på ska gynna oss i vår framtida lärarprofession. Resultatet av de vetenskapliga artiklar som vi har använt har sammanfattats till fyra kategorier där vi besvarar hur lärarens roll är en väsentlig del av det kooperativa lärandet, vilken inverkan gruppsammansättningen och dess medlemmar har, hur elevers motivation ökar när de erbjuds möjlighet att samarbeta med varandra och slutligen hur kooperativt lärande kan hämma elevers motivation om negativa konsekvenser inte uppmärksammas.  Vår slutsats blev att kooperativt lärande kan öka elevers motivation när det nyttjas på rätt sätt av lärare och elever. För att kooperativt lärande inte bara ska ses som ett komplement i undervisningen är det viktigt att arbetsmetoden successivt introduceras för elever. På så sätt får elever möjlighet att bygga upp ett förtroende för varandra och arbetsmetoden.

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Tutoring services have experienced exponential increases in enrollment in Canada, with Ontario alone witnessing a 60% increase in enrollment from 1996 to 2000 (see Aurini & Davies, 2004). While Canadian research has documented organizational changes (Aurini & Davies, 2004; Aurini, 2006) and parents’ motives to enroll in tutoring services (Davies, 2004; Gale, 2016), the lived experiences of students with tutoring services are notably absent from the literature to date. In response, the current study investigates the experiences of high school students receiving math tutoring services (n =3) and their parents (n =2). The extent to which their participation in tutoring demonstrates “transboundary learning” (Kim & Jung, 2019b) is also examined in response to claims that tutoring services represent mainly peripheral learning environments as opposed to a core part of students’ learning (Aurini & Davies, 2013). Guided by a poststructuralism theoretical framework, the study employs qualitative methods to respond to three questions: (1) What are the lived experiences of high school students receiving math tutoring from a private tutoring service in Ottawa (Ontario, Canada)? (2) What are parents’ motives for seeking private tutoring services? and (3) How do participants perceive the learning taking place in different environments (e.g., tutoring vs. school)? Data from semi-structured interviews with high school students and their parents are analyzed using thematic analysis and interpreted using a Transboundary Learning framework (Kim & Jung, 2019b). Findings reveal key characteristics of transboundary learning in participants’ math tutoring contexts, suggesting a shift in the relationship between tutoring and schooling from peripheral to transboundary learning, whereby, tutoring is not regarded as peripheral as it has been in the literature to date. These findings are discussed in light of the noteworthy influence of tutoring over students' learning and schooling, and the potential for more inequalities in education.

This master’s thesis deals with the upgrade of the iMatematika.cz website into more complex educational website with selected math basics for students with economical specialization or for economists themselves. From the selected math basics the educational materials are made, on which educational videos and sets of test questions are created. The output of this master’s thesis is a new website which reflects this accomplished analysis.

Introduction: This study investigated the use of spatial language by preschool teachers and children in 12 preschool classrooms to see if there are gender differences in the length and amount of spatial language teachers used with preschool boys versus girls or in the language boys versus girls used, during small group geometry activities. Spatial language, which includes words that explain the configuration of objects and their location in an environment, is related to math skill more broadly (Verdine, Bunger, Athanasopoulou, Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2017). Research indicates that girls are scoring lower on spatial skill tests as early as third grade (Levine et al., 1999), so this study aims to determine if one of the contributors may be differences in the way teacher or child language varies at an early age. Research Questions 1. Will teachers use words from all three categories of spatial language during geometry small group activities in preschool? 2. How much of the teachers’ spatial language use during geometry small group activities is directed at boys versus girls? 3. Will children use words from all three categories of spatial language during geometry small group activities in preschool? 4. How much spatial language are boys using versus girls during geometry small group activities Methods: Teacher and child language was coded in videotaped observations of preschool geometry activities collected for a larger study. The resulting data were not normally distributed so frequency counts and duration were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U tests. To further analyze the results from my Mann-Whitney U tests, I ran correlations for both preschool boys and preschool girls. Results and Conclusion: Mann-Whitney U tests showed a significantly longer duration of teachers’ use of spatial language towards preschool boys versus girls (p = .03) and of preschool boys’ versus girls’ own use of spatial language (p = .04). The frequency of spatial words used was not statistically significant for either teachers or preschoolers. There was no positive correlation that occurred for the preschool boys in terms of how long the teacher talked to them and the boys’ use of spatial language. There was a positive correlation in terms of the frequency with which the teacher talked to the girls and the girls use of spatial language. Though the boys’ spatial language was not related to the amount of time teachers’ used spatial language, the fact that girls spatial language was may suggest in general girls are more sensitive to teachers’ verbal interactions and their cues for responding. Children’s understanding of spatial language is important and contributes to their continued understanding of other important concepts as they progress through their education. Therefore, it is important that children gain an early confidence and skill in using spatial language. Preschool teachers have an opportunity to support them in developing their skills in this area through their own use of spatial language as well as the way in which they encourage children to use it themselves.

"Wanting to help children to overcome any fears that might be foremost in them, the writer wishes to make a study of principles of teaching arithmetic and apply in the classroom certain of these principles in an effort to help children hurdle their great fear of arithmetic"--Introduction. / "August 1956." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Mildred Swearingen, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-30).