Loading...
Individual and situational factors related to undergraduate mathematics instruction
Johnson, Estrella Keller, Rachel Peterson, Valerie Fukawa-Connelly, Timothy
Johnson, Estrella
Keller, Rachel
Peterson, Valerie
Fukawa-Connelly, Timothy
Citations
Altmetric:
Genre
Journal article
Date
2019-06-28
Advisor
Committee member
Group
Department
Teaching and Learning
Permanent link to this record
Collections
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0175-2
Abstract
Background: In the US, there is significant interest from policy boards and funding agencies to change students’ experiences in undergraduate mathematics classes. Even with these reform initiatives, researchers continue to document that lecture remains the dominant mode of instruction in US undergraduate mathematics courses. However, we have reason to believe there is variability in teaching practice, even among instructors who self describe their teaching practice as “lecture.” Thus, our research questions for this study are as follows: what instructional practices are undergraduate mathematics instructors currently employing and what are the factors influencing their use of non-lecture pedagogies? Here, we explore these questions by focusing on instruction in abstract algebra courses, an upper-division mathematics course that is particularly well positioned for instructional reform. Results: We report the results of a survey of 219 abstract algebra instructors from US colleges and universities concerning their instructional practices. Organizing our respondents into three groups based on the proportion of class time spent lecturing, we were able to identify 14 instructional practices that were significantly different between at least two of the three groups. Attempting to account for these differences, we analyzed the individual and situational factors reported by the instructors. Results indicate that while significant differences in teaching practices exist, these differences are primarily associated with individual factors, such as personal beliefs. Situational characteristics, such as perceived departmental support and situation of abstract algebra in the broader mathematics curriculum, did not appear to be related to instructional differences. Conclusions: Our results suggest that personal bounds in general, and beliefs in particular, are strongly related to the decision to (not) lecture. However, many of the commonly cited reasons used to justify the use of extensive lecture were not significantly different across the three groups of instructors. This lack of differentiation suggests that there may be relevant institutional characteristics that have not yet been explored in the literature, and a transnational comparison might be useful in identifying them.
Description
Citation
Johnson, E., Keller, R., Peterson, V. et al. Individual and situational factors related to undergraduate mathematics instruction. IJ STEM Ed 6, 23 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0175-2
Citation to related work
SpringerOpen
Has part
International Journal of STEM Education, Vol. 6, Article No: 23
ADA compliance
For Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.edu