We face a world in which a college degree increasingly dictates the likelihood of
life success. At the same time, there has been an ever-increasing population of students
who have not been prepared adequately through their high school education to meet the
rigors of college/university-level content. This problem can be seen in the number of
students needing Intermediate Algebra. Students who complete remedial courses with a
grade of C or better are more likely to pass their first college-level mathematics course
and continue their education until they have completed all coursework needed for a
degree.
Students entering colleges and universities underprepared for collegiate
mathematics, reading, and writing have reached epidemic proportions, with 30% of the
students needing remediation in one of these areas. A portion of this problem has been
identified as mathematics anxiety. Because students have habituated mathematics
failure, they are aware of their deficiencies, but still desire a college education. They bring with them years of negative emotions from repeated mathematics failures. These
years of negative feelings about mathematics precipitated by repeated failures are often
manifested as mathematics anxiety that must be addressed in order to improve studentsâÂÂ
content knowledge.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a web-based technology
centric course, Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS), on the
remediation of college freshmen enrolled in an Intermediate Algebra class as compared
to college freshmen enrolled in an Intermediate Algebra class taught using a traditional
lecture method. Mathematics anxiety and attitude toward mathematics will also be
investigated to determine if ALEKS can lower the anxiety associated with mathematics,
as well as improve attitudes. An algebra test, mathematics anxiety rating scale, and
mathematics attitude test was given to both groups of students at the beginning of the
semester and at the end of the semester.
The overall findings of this research suggested that ALEKS Intermediate Algebra
students performed as well as the Control group taking a class in Intermediate Algebra
taught by lecture. The anxiety of the Experimental group decreased more than the
Control group, and the Experimental groupâÂÂs attitude toward mathematics increased at a
greater rate than did the Control group.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4885 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | Taylor, Judy M. |
| Contributors | Capraro, Robert M. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 791015 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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