Blogs

IMPACT Plus - Analyzing Student Work

By April Strom posted 8 days ago
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As we imagine the learning of mathematics as an active and engaging experience for students, we need to leverage what we know from research which encourages the use of student thinking to guide instruction. Instructional strategies, such as the use of “vertical non-permanent surfaces” (VNPS) as promoted in Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl, provide an essential window into student thinking. So, what does it mean to use student thinking when teaching? And in what ways can student thinking guide instruction? Let’s explore a traditional task first and then discuss thoughts on these questions. Consider the following task: ...
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IMPACT Plus - Building Thinking Classrooms

By Scott Adamson posted 17 days ago
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You open the door to the classroom and your initial reaction is shock. It seems that chaos reigns as you notice students out of their seats as they talk with one another. Furthermore, the desks are not neatly arranged in rows, but seem to be randomly clustered into small groups as the students use the desk tops to set up laptop computers connected to microphones used for collecting data. Students are recording their work on the white boards that surround the room. Where is the teacher? You are not sure. Concerned with the outward appearance of this classroom, you enter the classroom to investigate. You stop at the first group of students and try to figure ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - Three Components of Student Engagement

By Scot Pruyn posted 26 days ago
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What are some of your common frustrations about student performance in your classes? Maybe students aren’t putting in the time necessary to struggle with problems and understand concepts. Or they provide surface-level responses to your questions that were designed to make them think more deeply and make connections. Perhaps you just want students to be more precise with their notation or vocabulary when writing or speaking about mathematics. The root of many of these issues is a lack of engagement. If students are going through the motions that they’ve learned through years of school will get them a passing grade, they are not engaged and we will see that ...
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IMPACT Plus - Active Learning

By Robert Cappetta posted 11-18-2021
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The traditional mathematics class is a “teacher-telling” environment where the students listen and watch the instructor perform mathematics. The student’s role is to take notes in class, review them outside class, and complete homework assignments. People taught in this manner can succeed in their courses by simply memorizing and “mimicking” the behavior of the instructor, yet these strategies will rarely succeed at the collegiate level in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses. A great challenge with first-year college students is helping them realize that mathematics is not about formulas and procedures, but rather it should be focused ...
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IMPACT Plus - Proficiency in Math Intensive Courses

By Robert Cappetta posted 11-08-2021
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AMATYC defines “mathematics intensive” courses as those taught in the first two years of collegiate study that lead to advanced work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Our mathematics intensive network focuses on courses such as college algebra, precalculus, calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra. These require development of abilities in problem solving, modeling, reasoning, connecting to other disciplines, communicating, and using technology, which are the goals student learning outcomes as defined in AMATYC’s (1995) Crossroads in Mathematics. Similarly, the National Research Council (2001) defines proficiency as reflecting ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - Proficiency of Mathematics for Students in Math-Related Majors

By Michael Caparula posted 10-31-2021
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Authors: Michael Caparula and Eric Hutchinson The IMPACT document presents a number of items that The Mathematics Intensive Committee has interest in. However, for this month, we will be focusing on statements in the Proficiency chapter. Our committee looks at the objectives and pedagogies of the upper-level courses such as College Algebra, Calculus I, II, III, Calculus for Business, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra. Proficiency is vital for all students in math courses, however, these students will be integrating mathematics (with and without technology) in their profession whether it’s in engineering, actuary science, chemistry, ...
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IMPACT Plus - How Do YOU Define the Idea of Rigor in Mathematics Education?

By Scott Adamson posted 10-08-2021
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How Do YOU Define the Idea of Rigor in Mathematics Education? Suppose you heard a colleague say, “Today’s math lesson is very rigorous!” What does it mean to label a lesson as “rigorous?” What would YOUR thoughts be if you heard someone claim that a lesson was rigorous? Take a moment to think about YOUR meaning for the idea of “rigor” in mathematics. The University of Texas Charles A. Dana Center reports four commonly held viewpoints on rigor in the mathematics classroom: View 1: Use of logical deductions from stated hypotheses to prove theorems View 2: Adhering to traditionally prescribed content including a long list of ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - The Teaching for PROWESS Project and Fostering Mathematical Proficiency in Students

By Dennis Ebersole posted 09-30-2021
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After the unveiling of AMATYC’s IMPACT document, a group of AMATYC members recognized the need to help two-year colleges meet the vision in the IMPACT document and the two previous standards documents. Considering the magnitude of this endeavor, it was decided that the best course of action was to apply for a large National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. The outcome was the $2.9 million NSF grant, Teaching for PROWESS, that just started its second year of work. In Phase 1 of the project we are working with two community colleges, Clackamas Community College and Chandler-Gilbert Community College, to support them in increasing their use of active ...
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IMPACT Plus - Student experiences with course design, classroom norms, and teaching practices

By Luke Walsh posted 09-23-2021
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When you read the following three statements, “(1) Experience. (2) Student experience . (3) Student experience in mathematics. “, what do you notice and what do you wonder? One might wonder how a framework of PROWESS relates to the student experience in mathematics. For example, “when students take initiative of their own learning” (AMATYC, 2018, p. 32) what experiences in mathematics allowed for that opportunity to happen? Maybe the student experience was a positive one that showed how their thinking belongs in mathematics. Yet, negative experiences in mathematics can easily become powerful moments that carry on as a long-lasting, hurtful ...
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IMPACT Plus - Mathematical Modeling in Differential Equations and Student Confidence

By Vinodh Kumar Chellamuthu posted 09-20-2021
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Differential equations is an important component of mathematics curricula for STEM majors. Students at my institution often find Differential Equations class as a "capstone" course of the first two years of college mathematics that they complete as part of their STEM degrees such as engineering. I believe that it is important to learn to think creatively and logically and see the connection of real-world context in mathematics curriculum. This is particularly important for opening doors to STEM majors, and retaining STEM students. I try to connect the class material to real world scenarios that encompass the course curriculum's conceptual understanding. Engaging ...
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IMPACT Plus - Examining Student Attitudes Towards Statistics in Community College Courses

By Brooks Ziegler posted 09-16-2021
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I wanted to understand what I could do as an educator in my own classroom to meet students where they are and use different pedagogical methods to guide them towards not only an understanding but an appreciation of the concepts behind statistics. My introductory statistics students complete a project that uses data they collect. Following the project, students are asked to give feedback on their experience with the project. A comment from a student on their reflection and feedback caused me to pause. The student shared that before they had taken my course they believed all statistics used in research and science were skewed or, even worse, completely made up ...
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IMPACT Plus - Student Ownership through Reflection

By Rheannin Becke posted 09-13-2021
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“I have taken [learning] into my own hands to actually go back and see where I struggled…” Developmental mathematics is an important area of teaching and learning. I am an Adult Educator, and I teach pre-college mathematics courses in the Transitional Studies department at Clark College. My students enroll in contextualized mathematics courses as they get ready for college and gain job skills that prepare them for academic programs and high wage jobs. Students often enter Transitional Studies courses with previous academic experiences that were not successful, and sometimes traumatic. The student experience in my classes must support their mathematical ...
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IMPACT Plus - The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in The First Two Years of College Mathematics

By Megan Breit-Goodwin posted 09-13-2021
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We grow in our teaching when we listen, ask questions and investigate what happens in our classrooms and in our students’ learning. This commitment to be a lifelong learner keeps us evergreen in our teaching, and revitalizes us as educators. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is faculty inquiry that investigates questions about the relationship between student learning and their own teaching. It is contextualized and unique to individual classrooms, a faculty member’s teaching and their students’ learning. Findings are peer-reviewed and shared for others to build upon, and SoTL collectively builds a robust foundation of community knowledge ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - The Impact of Project ACCCESS on New Faculty

By Nikki Williams posted 09-01-2021
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Project ACCCESS definitely had an impact on my academic career. I began teaching high school mathematics after leaving a corporate job and immediately discovered a hidden passion for teaching math. Although my new career paid astronomically less than my previous job, it was shockingly more fulfilling than I ever could have imagined. I quickly learned, however, that the high school environment required many different non-teaching responsibilities that ended up not being a good fit for me. I just wanted to teach math and hoped that my students would have an inkling of interest in what I was teaching. While working this job full-time, I taught mathematics ...
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IMPACT Plus - Multiple Measures

By Jeff Thies posted 08-17-2021
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A decade ago Katherine Hughes and Judith Scott-Clayton, at the time with the Community College Research Center (CCRC), published an article describing the challenges of a single assessment for placement purposes. The work included a future research recommendation to review an alternative approach, one that would take advantage of multiple measures to place students into English and mathematics courses (Hughes & Scott-Clayton, 2011). As Hughes and Scott-Clayton noted back in 2011, creating a new model of placement has not been without challenges. How do you define multiple measures? How long are metrics valid as a placement tool? How do you collect and ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts: A Call to Action (Equity)

By Karen Gaines posted 08-10-2021
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Co-written by members of the AMATYC Equity Committee - (This was originally posted as a library entry) Urgent calls to reimagine education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have turned into calls for revolutionary change with the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the police killings of unarmed black people. It is time for our field to take concrete action to improve outcomes for black students. Many structures and practices lead to overall lower mathematics attainment for black students and other underrepresented racially minoritized students (e.g., Latinx, Southeast Asian, Native American) in mathematics. These include unequal opportunities ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - Placement: The First Step in Helping Students Succeed in Mathematics

By Rachel Bates posted 07-31-2021
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Two major events, the pandemic and multiple measures, have affected how students have been placed into mathematics courses recently. Going forward, there are questions about how the pandemic and multiple measures affect students’ ability to succeed in math courses. As a first step, here are a collection of questions we might contemplate for this month’s discussions. Please join us each week with a new topic: Placement Philosophy and Implementation (week 1) A math placement philosophy states the goal of placement at your college and guides the actions/policies you put in place to meet this goal. Does your college have a placement philosophy, ...
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IMPACT Plus - High Impact Practices in the Math Classroom

By Alicia O'Brien posted 07-15-2021
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In many subject areas traditional high-stakes assessment doesn’t give a holistic picture of what knowledge students may have mastered or what students need more time learning. High stakes assessments also overlook deeper learning of content. This discussion focuses on High Impact Practices in an online mathematics course for teacher education majors and how formative assessment and service learning foster positive attitudes towards mathematics. What is considered a High Impact Practice? • A set of practices that have been tested and shown to be beneficial for many college students, particularly in historically underserved student populations. Research ...
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IMPACTful Thoughts - What Happens in Math for Elementary Teaching Shouldn’t Stay in Math for Elementary Teachers

By Chris Sabino posted 07-01-2021
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Let me start us off with a little warm up. When you look at this picture, what do you notice? Hold onto what you notice until the end. (Beckmann, 2018) This was a warm up that I used during the past semester in my Mathematics for Elementary Teachers (MFET) classes. This image was on a Jamboard. Students provided their thoughts via sticky notes about what they noticed. Maybe you’re thinking, “yeah that works for Math for Elementary teachers but…” I also used this as a warm up for my Trigonometry class with similar results and will continue to use it (and other “what do you notice”) activities in every math class I teach. Why? Because what happens ...
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IMPACT Plus - Using Peter Liljedahl’s Research to Foster Student Ownership: A Rich Problem Example

By Dennis Ebersole posted 06-07-2021
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According to the IMPACT, faculty can foster student ownership through three tasks: 1) by “providing students with open-ended questions or utilizing inquiry-based learning” allowing students to discover concepts (page 32), 2) by supporting students to develop meaning through productive struggle (page 33), and 3) by providing the “opportunity for transfer of ownership, practice, and application to [the] student” (page 32). In his book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics Peter Liljedahl listed 14 practices teachers can use to increase mathematical thinking by students and thus enhance learning: Types of tasks to use ...
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