A Report on the Effectiveness of the Developmental Mathematics Program M.Y. Math Project - Making Your Mathematics: Knowing When and How to Use It

Mathematics and Computer Education, Spring 2004 by Vasquez, Selina

M.Y. Math Project is a developmental mathematics program that is aimed at:

(1) fostering fundamental and problem-solving skills in developmental mathematics students by helping them to learn when and how to create and use algorithms, and

(2) providing on-the-job training for developmental mathematics instructors through an instructional framework that requires them to develop and incorporate non-traditional instructional techniques.

This project is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) which in turn provided funding for field testing in eight colleges and universities in Texas, Florida, Ohio, and New Mexico. The purpose of this report is to provide a description of the project as well as its effectiveness at increasing developmental mathematics students' performance by improving the quality of developmental mathematics instruction. all the developmental mathematics instructors are full-time graduate students.

Project Description

The M.Y. Math Project targets two populations, the developmental mathematics instructors and the developmental mathematics students. The primary change agent is an instructor handbook, created by project faculty members at Texas State University (Vasquez, McCabe, and Dorman), consisting of a complete set of lesson plans grounded in the Algorithmic Instructional Technique [AIT] (Vasquez, 2003). Moreover, the four-part handbook is a workbook in nature containing opportunities for developmental mathematics instructors to journal classroom events, reflect on pedagogical decisions, and include supportive samples of student work.

Developmental mathematics instructors were provided with both training and resources. For them, the project began with an intensive workshop prior to each Fall or Spring semester. The training session included a description of the project, a review of the instructional handbook, demonstrations and occasions for practice of lessons and activities (especially those that utilize non-traditional instructional methodologies such as cooperative learning and technology), an overview of administrative responsibilities including accountability and evaluation tasks, and other traditional topics such as information about learning preferences and diversity training. As a way to maintain communication, a weekly seminar provided the developmental mathematics instructors with a forum to discuss day-to-day activities, express concerns, share insights, and get feedback.

As far as the students are concerned, they are generally unaware that a project is in place. They realize that they are being taught in a nontraditional way but there is no overt programmatic imposition.

Project Effectiveness

The effectiveness of the project is determined by focusing on three major components: the project in general, the developmental mathematics instructors, and the developmental mathematics students. The following is a description of evaluative measures for each of these parts as well as the results of these efforts from Spring 2001 to Spring 2003.

The developmental mathematics instructors are given an opportunity to evaluate the workshop, the seminar, and the overall project on a semester by semester basis. In general, the developmental mathematics instructors found:

* the workshop to be extremely helpful in increasing their readiness to teach and orient them to the project. In particular, workshop evaluations indicated that the most beneficial aspect of the workshop was the opportunity to witness sound educational teaching practices followed by discussion and implementation.

* the weekly seminar was helpful, for instance, in the Fall 2002, only two developmental mathematics instructors were periodically producing additional activities whereas in the Spring 2003, more than half of the developmental mathematics instructors were so engaged. All the developmental mathematics instructors asserted that "the training from this project helped me to become a better teacher."

Instructors provided formative and summative data by maintaining an instructional portfolio comprised of lesson plans and activities, journal of classroom events, reflections, and samples of student work. This data is reviewed often by project faculty in order to ensure the developmental mathematics instructors are utilizing the model. Overall, the instructors tended to use the lesson plans provided in the instructional handbook. See Apendix A for a lesson plan on slope.

A description of the four instructional handbook components is provided in Appendix B, plus a specific template for the reflections in Appendix C. This gives the developmental mathematics instructors a chance to become familiar with the types of questions they should ask themselves. They are also asked to write teaching philosophies at the beginning of each semester and revise these statements at the end of the semester. With some exceptions, a comparison of pre- and post-philosophies demonstrated substantial growth for each instructor.