Passing the introductory calculus sequence is critical to undergraduate students' retention in STEM programs. This study examines the relations between three interrelated processes found to influence mathematics learning and achievement: spatial skills, spatial anxiety, and math anxiety. Additionally, it examines the role of gender on these…

Homework is prevalent in mathematics courses, as are cumulative final exams. This study incorporated the memory science concepts of the "testing effect" and "spacing effect" in the homework and final exam of college mathematics courses. By replacing some new homework problems with review problems, students had additional…

The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) can serve as a summative assessment of students' conceptual knowledge at the end of introductory physics, but previous work has suggested that the knowledge measured by this instrument is not a unitary construct. In this article, we consider the idea that FCI performance may reflect a number of student attributes…

Previous work has looked at the relationship between high school preparation and student performance in calculus-based introductory mechanics (physics 1) courses. Here, we extend that work to look at performance in introductory calculus-based electricity and magnetism (physics 2), and we look at the significance of what college math courses have…

In the context of introductory physics, we study student conceptual understanding of differentials, differential products, and integrals and possible pathways to understanding these quantities. We developed a multiple choice conceptual assessment employing a variety of physical contexts probing physical understanding of these three quantities and…

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the implementation and impact of the IDEA Public Schools' Mathematics Curriculum Redesign (MCR) effort, funded by an Innovation and Research (EIR) grant. Methods: The study used a quasi-experimental matching design to examine the effect of MCR on student achievement outcomes. The study compared…

The flipped classroom is becoming a popular course structure in many academic disciplines, but particularly in STEM disciplines, including mathematics. Considerable research has addressed potential advantages and challenges of teaching a flipped course, as well as examining students' attitudes towards the flipped classroom. Studies on students'…

The purpose of this study was to investigate implementation of an early intervention mastery activity during the first two weeks of college algebra and precalculus courses at a large U.S. public university. Statistical modeling of (N = 935) students' performance in the courses, including a logistic regression model of pass/fail course achievement…

We propose a new course structure to address the needs of college students with previous calculus study but no course validations as an alternative to repeating the first year of calculus. Students are introduced directly to topics from Calculus III unpreceded by a formal review of topics from Calculus I or II, but with additional syllabus time…

Spatial skills have been shown in various longitudinal studies to be related to multiple science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) achievement and retention. The specific nature of this relation has been probed in only a few domains, and has rarely been investigated for calculus, a critical topic in preparing students for and in STEM…

As online videos have become more easily available and more attractive to the new generation of students, and as new student-learning approaches tend to have more technology integration, the flipped classroom model has become very popular. The purpose of this study was to understand college students' views on flipped courses and investigate how…

There has been concern over the validity of the Algebra Diagnostic Test (ADT) used to determine the actual level of student preparation for the first quarter of calculus as taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It has been hypothesized that performance-based questions, along with the more traditional multiple choice questions,…

Descriptions of Papua New Guinea's national high schools, grade 12 major/minor mathematics courses, and an analysis of the 1980 and 1981 major/minor course examination results are presented. The analysis is intended for use by post year 12 lecturers/instructors planning their courses. Findings indicate that topic scores were far too low for these…

Steele and Aronson (1995) found that the performance of African-American subjects on test items portrayed as a problem-solving task, in a laboratory experiment, was adversely affected when they were asked about their ethnicity. This outcome was attributed to "stereotype threat". Performance was disrupted by the subjects' concerns about…