Search

While the role of affective factors in learning is well understood in geoscience, math attitudes have been overlooked. This study sought to explore the relationships between math attitudes and geoscience attitudes, namely math anxiety, self-efficacy, and geoscience interest. Baseline data were collected from 245 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory geoscience courses at three colleges and universities in the United States, with self-report measures of math anxiety, math self-efficacy, geoscience self-efficacy, geoscience interest, and demographic information. Results show strong relationships and predictive values of math attitudes for students' geoscience attitudes, particularly for female-identifying students. This research provides important empirical support for the study of math attitudes in geoscience; additionally, educators can use this knowledge to inform their understanding of their students' math attitudes and possible interest in geoscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pilot studies of an NSF-funded project called The Math You Need When You Need It (TMYN; http://serc.carleton.edu/mathyouneed) reveal that online, asynchronous learning modules are effective at remediating students' quantitative skills in introductory geoscience in both community college and university settings. TMYN uses a just-in-time and necessity approach to mathematical learning, with online modular tutorials assigned prior to students encountering a quantitative concept in a geoscience context. Pre- and posttest scores show that TMYN modules used in conjunction with a geoscience course successfully increase student's quantitative skills. Survey responses indicate that students perceive the modules as helpful. Variation in student completion rates across the pilots illustrates challenges to effective implementation of online learning modules and suggests that instructional methods and students' perceptions (and instructor reinforcement) of task value and expectancy of success may influence student interaction with TMYN and, thus, effective mathematics remediation. Class size and focus, concepts covered, and grading stakes seem to have a negligible influence on student completion and success rates, illustrating TMYN's flexibility in a variety of instructional settings. The modular, asynchronous, and online approach of TMYN represents a promising solution to the challenge of teaching quantitative material that is contextually framed in a science context. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

The Math You Need, When You Need It (TMYN) is a set of online tutorials designed to help students develop and review mathematical skills that are applied in undergraduate geoscience courses. We present results of a three-year study of more than 4000 students in 106 geoscience courses at a variety of post-secondary schools who were assigned TMYN tutorials as supplemental mathematics instruction. Changes in student scores from pre- to post-test suggest that the support provided by programs such as TMYN can begin to reduce the gap between mathematically well-prepared and underprepared students; in essence, TMYN levels the quantitative playing field for all geoscience students. On average, both high- and low-performing students who fully participated in the use of TMYN as a part of their course showed learning gains, although gains were larger for students who performed poorly on the pre-test. Our findings emphasize the conclusion that students who interact with context-specific quantitative problems can potentially improve their mathematical skills, regardless of initial level of mathematical preparation. We suggest that this type of support could generalize to other science courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the need for math skills in geoscience courses as an example, Helen E. Burn and Eric M. D. Baer from Highline Community College and Jennifer M. Wenner from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh make the case for just-in-time embedded remediation to improve student learning while using class time efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]