ERIC Number: ED497714
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Feb-15
Pages: 17
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Design and Study of the Instrument to Assess Students' Attitude toward Graphing Calculator
Reznichenko, Nataliya
Online Submission, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Educational Research Association (EERA) (Clearwater, FL, Feb 2007)
Assumptions: In mathematics learning, one of the considerations in the graphing calculator (GC) use is to understand students' attitude toward calculators. Rationale: This presentation describes design of an assessment instrument of students' attitude toward graphing calculator. Objectives: A pilot study that assessed the effectiveness of the developed instrument was conducted in the Developmental Mathematics classes at CCBC-Essex, MD. Theoretical framework: As a powerful tool, GC are becoming common in mathematics classrooms at all levels (Dick, 1992). Ellington (2003) conducted a meta-analysis of findings from 54 research studies on calculator use in pre-college mathematics classes. She used additional category for analysis that was not included in previous studies. This category was students' attitude toward the use of calculators in mathematics. Techniques: The instrument being developed is the Attitudes to Graphing Calculators (GC) in Mathematics Learning Questionnaire. The best instrument should provide both validity and reliability. In the pilot study that assesses the reliability of the developed instrument, the instrument was administered to a convenience group of 17 students-volunteers of the Developmental Mathematics classes at CCBC-Essex, MD. Results: To calculate statistics for the collected data I've used the CORR procedure from the SAS package (Delwiche & Slaughter, 2004). Reliability indices for all of the measures were calculated using Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient. Conclusions: Based on the positive results of the pilot study, it can be concluded that developed instrument has good internal consistency reliability. Developed instrument can be used to examine the attitudes toward GC in mathematics learning. Summary: In mathematics learning, one of the considerations in the graphing calculator (GC) use is to understand students' attitude toward calculators. This presentation describes design of an assessment instrument of students' attitude toward GC. A pilot study that assessed the effectiveness of the developed instrument was conducted in the Developmental Mathematics classes at CCBC-Essex, MD. Positive result is presented. The Attitudes to Graphing Calculators (GC) in Mathematics Learning Questionnaire is appended.
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Maryland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A