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Eric.ed.gov – Engaging Honors Students in Purposeful Planning through a Concept Mapping Assignment

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In Larry Clark’s monograph chapter on the education of academically talented college students, he challenged honors educators to consider their role in helping students find their path, particularly through the addition of self-reflection and exploratory projects in honors courses. In an honors first-year experience (FYE) course for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors at the University of Florida, one assignment was designed in particular to meet the special needs of honors students and to achieve Larry Clark’s goals. This article serves as an illustration and model of “helping students find their path” through Melissa Johnson’s perspective as an instructor, and through the comments of two first-year students–Stephanie Podjed and Sean Taasan–who took an honors FYE course for STEM majors at the University of Florida. The honors… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – An Analysis of the High Attrition Rates among First Year College Science, Math and Engineering Majors.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Increases in attrition rates among science, mathematics, and engineering (SME) majors have produced a variety of deleterious effects for society. This paper attempts to clarify and interpret the interaction of those characteristics of the structure and culture of undergraduate SME programs that perpetuate high loss rates among their first-year college majors by looking at a number of studies of SME programs and undergraduate attrition. The interaction of instructional factors, differing high school and faculty expectations for entering SME undergraduates, and epistemological considerations was found to contribute to a higher dissatisfaction among SME majors as compared with non-SME major and to resulting student attrition. Significant support was not seen for the contribution of commonly cited explanations of SME attrition such as cognitive factors and large class sizes. (Contains… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – 2012 Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship Special Report: An Examination of Grant and Loan Forgiveness Programs for Special Populations

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Comprising eleven financial aid programs, the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) provided financial aid to 101,569 students at a cost of $297,589,674 in 2010-11 (Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation [TSAC], 2011). The four largest programs (the HOPE scholarship program, the General Assembly Merit Scholarship program [GAMS], the ASPIRE award, and the Tennessee HOPE ACCESS Grant), which are referred to colloquially as the Hope Scholarship program, account for 70 percent of the students and 91 percent of TELS expenditures. There is a growing body of research focusing on these four programs, including an annual fact book published by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC). However, research on the smaller TELS programs remains scant. This report provides a descriptive overview of five of the smaller TELS programs, including: the Dual… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – An Investigation for the Future Educators’ Attitudes towards the Environmental Issues in the Context of Ecocentrism and Anthropocentrism

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In this study, it was revealed that the factors influencing the future educators’ attitudes towards the environment. The survey was conducted between 2013-2014, on the freshman and the senior students studying in two different education faculties providing training within the boundaries of Turkish Cypriot. As a result, it has been found that persons who take any course related to environment, become a member of any environmental organizations, join any environmental activities, and follow any publication related to the environment by throughout education life contribute the formation of environmental protection awareness for them. The majority of the participants had an ecocentric attitude. To be increased of the environmental awareness for teacher candidates studying in math and social sciences, the necessity and importance of a number of environmental activities… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Risks and Opportunities Associated with Weak Arithmatic Skills of Accounting Students

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper explored the authors’ concerns about students enrolled in their introductory accounting course. Anecdotal evidence suggested that students struggle with basic arithmetic concepts that underlie basic business transactions even though their math placement and ACT scores are high. A survey of 125 students in a first accounting course was conducted in the spring of 2010 to assess the basic arithmetical skills. The results indicated that the ACT scores and math placement tests do not reveal weakness in basic arithmetic. We find that faculty and students will experience frustration due to the impaired arithmetic ability. By taking for granted that students possess basic skills in arithmetic faculty will exclude exercises from the curriculum that will build the kind of arithmetic abilities students need to think on their… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Math Anxiety: A Research Report.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Presented are the following reports: (1) Math Anxiety: Real and Complex; (2) Math Anxiety and Middle School Students; (3) Math Anxiety and College Freshmen; (4) Math Anxiety and Elementary Teachers; and (5) Math Anxiety: Conclusions, Discussions, and Remedies. The studies attempt to answer questions regarding mathematics anxiety: (1) what is it, (2) who has it, (3) why do people have it, and (4) what can be done to prevent or cure this anxiety? Anxiety was measured by a standardized rating scale and information on related variables was determined by a standardized test and an investigator-developed questionnaire. Findings are presented separately for each study. Among the conclusions are: (1) group membership has little impact on a person’s anxiety unless the group membership reflects actual mathematics performance or an… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – New Mexico Higher Education Department Annual Report, 2015

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED) and higher education institutions (HEIs) have set long-term statewide goals to increase 4-year graduation rates, improve transfer and articulation, and improve remedial education outcomes. HED is pursuing these goals through the following initiatives: (1) Statewide common course numbering and alignment of lower division coursework; (2) Developing meta-majors and transfer modules; (3) Reforming the general education core curriculum; (4) Co-requisite remediation and Math pathways; (5) Decreasing the number of hours required for both associate’s and bachelor’s degrees; (6) Incentivizing 4-year graduation; and (7) Implementation of outcomes based funding. This annual report outlines each of the initiatives. Accomplishing these timely and aggressive goals requires remarkable collaboration among all the HEIs and between the HEIs and the HED. With the Governor’s leadership, the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Understanding the STEM Pipeline. Working Paper 125

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: I investigate the determinants of high school completion and college attendance, the likelihood of taking science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) courses in the first year of college and the probability of earning a degree in a STEM field. The focus is on women and minorities, who tend to be underrepresented in STEM fields. Tracking four cohorts of students throughout Florida, I find that large differences in math achievement across racial lines exist as early as elementary school and persist through high school. These achievement differences lead to higher drop-out rates in high school and a reduced probability of attending college for black students. However, conditional on immediately attending a four-year college after high school, black and Hispanic students are more likely than whites to take STEM… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Study of Concurrent Enrollment Math Performance in a Subsequent Class. Issue Brief No. 2

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Utah SB 196 from the 2015 General Session challenged the State Board of Regents with increasing the number of students who complete their General Education Quantitative Literacy (QL) requirement senior year of high school. One thing needed to meet this goal: more Concurrent Enrollment Mathematics instructors. Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) math departments developed robust professional development programs to engage new educators in the Math 1030, 1040, and 1050 curriculum, more Concurrent Enrollment (CE) QL Math options have been made available, and the number of students completing their QL requirement through CE has increased as a result of SB 196 initiatives. To evaluate the strength of these efforts to involve public educators with Level 4 Mathematics endorsements, USHE analyzed data on the performance of students who… Continue Reading