Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T10:14:59.546Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

19 - Using SoTL Practices to Drive Curriculum Development

from Theme 5: - Tackling Large Questions

Rikki Wagstrom
Affiliation:
Metropolitan State University
Jacqueline M. Dewar
Affiliation:
Loyola Marymount University
Curtis D. Bennett
Affiliation:
Loyola Marymount University
Get access

Summary

Editors' Commentary

In this chapter, Rikki Wagstrom describes how she applied SoTL processes to aid in the development and evaluation of a new curriculum that integrated civic issues into a prerequisite course for college algebra. Her experience illustrates how it can take a long time to identify and frame an appropriate research question. She describes searching the literature and tells how it led her to a useful model, one that prompted her to change the site of her investigation and revise her research question. She provides insights into the problems that can arise in finding faculty members to teach experimental and control sections, and the tough decisions that have to be made about how much data to collect.

Introduction

My SoTL journey originated with the 2006 Summer Institute sponsored by SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities, see sencer.net). SENCER, a National Science Foundation funded program, supports mathematics and science faculty in creating or modifying curriculum, pedagogies, and courses to integrate civic issues. When I attended the institute, the courses already developed through SENCER were mostly in the sciences; only a few were in mathematics. I returned to Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, inspired to design a SENCER mathematics course and curious about how using the SENCER approach would affect introductory-level courses such as developmental mathematics and college algebra, where low retention rates are a problem.

When I returned for the 2007 SENCER Summer Institute, I participated in a pre-institute workshop on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Workshop participants began to develop a SoTL research question to investigate during the coming year and to report on the following summer. I started with many questions: Would teaching college algebra through a civic issue generate interest in mathematics? Would it improve students' ability to think about and use algebra sensibly? Would it better prepare them for future mathematics courses? To launch my SoTL project, I settled on the question: How does teaching algebra through civic issues affect students' abilities to apply appropriate mathematical arguments or tools to mathematics-related problems arising in their lives?

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Mathematical Association of America
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×