Advisor Information
Michael Matthews
Location
UNO Criss Library, Room 225
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
3-3-2017 10:30 AM
End Date
3-3-2017 10:45 AM
Abstract
MATH 1340 has a history of high DFW rates. This is true not just at UNO but nationally as well. An Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach to teaching this course could be a possible solution. In the fall 2016 semester I assisted Dr. Matthews with a MATH 1340 course. This class focused on problem solving in groups with little lecture time and many student presentations. To compare our class to the traditionally taught precalculus class we gave a pretest and posttest to both sections. After performing a two sample t-test on the data we found that students in the IBL class slightly outperformed the other class, but not by enough to be statistically significant. We also found that our section of MATH 1340 had a 28.2% DFW rate compared to average rate of 40.8%. This average was calculated using the DFW rates for all MATH 1340 classes from spring of 1995 to fall of 2016. At this point it cannot be said if the IBL style is better or worse than the lecture style, but the results are promising.
Effects of Inquiry Based Learning on an Undergraduate Precalculus Course
UNO Criss Library, Room 225
MATH 1340 has a history of high DFW rates. This is true not just at UNO but nationally as well. An Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach to teaching this course could be a possible solution. In the fall 2016 semester I assisted Dr. Matthews with a MATH 1340 course. This class focused on problem solving in groups with little lecture time and many student presentations. To compare our class to the traditionally taught precalculus class we gave a pretest and posttest to both sections. After performing a two sample t-test on the data we found that students in the IBL class slightly outperformed the other class, but not by enough to be statistically significant. We also found that our section of MATH 1340 had a 28.2% DFW rate compared to average rate of 40.8%. This average was calculated using the DFW rates for all MATH 1340 classes from spring of 1995 to fall of 2016. At this point it cannot be said if the IBL style is better or worse than the lecture style, but the results are promising.
Additional Information (Optional)
Winner of Honorable Mention Undergraduate Oral Presentation