Spartan Daily, November 27, 2001

Volume 117, Issue 59https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9764/thumbnail.jp

Questioning, exploring, narrating and playing in the control room to maintain system safety

Systems whose design is primarily aimed at ensuring efficient, effective and safe working, such as control rooms, have traditionally been evaluated in terms of criteria that correspond directly to those values: functional correctness, time to complete tasks, etc. This paper reports on a study of control room working that identified other factors that contributed directly to overall system safety. These factors included the ability of staff to manage uncertainty, to learn in an exploratory way, to reflect on their actions, and to engage in problem-solving that has many of the hallmarks of playing puzzles which, in turn, supports exploratory learning. These factors, while currently difficult to measure or explicitly design for, must be recognized and valued in design

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS' CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS

Following widespread concern over an apparent decline in the mathematical skills of engineering students, this study employed survey and observation methods to investigate the ways in which engineering students understand mathematical concepts, and to compare these with the concepts held-by students of mathematics. It was found that the engineering students employ a different vocabulary from mathematics students in discussing mathematics, and that their understanding of mathematical concepts develops differently from mathematics students both in response to teaching (which appears to be a transitory effect) and as their experience gives meaning to the ideas in life outside study. These findings are important in two ways. We need to make the mathematics teachers of engineering students aware of the language and concepts of their students so that the possibility of mutual misunderstanding is reduced, and we as educators need to help engineering students to make these connections in order to ground their mathematics in reality and to use mathematics an Instrument for understanding the world. Compared with the classical mathematical modelling paradigm and the classical empirical modelling paradigm, the method used by engineering students was found to be a hybrid based on the Identification of the type of problem and the application of a "preexisting law. Some misconceptions concerning the behaviour of beams In bending were found to be widely held, by respondents with a range of levels of experience. Whereas the particular misconceptions are not Important in themselves. It Is salutary to realise that expertise in one area of study does not necessarily Inoculate one against misconceptions In a closely related area. A software package was written using the context of mathematical modelling to help students relate concepts In calculus to physical situations. This package was found not to engage the students sufficiently to provoke cognitive change, and suggests that a higher degree of Interactivity Is needed

An analysis of student achievement and attitudes by gender in computer-integrated and non-computer-integrated first year college mainstream calculus courses.

This study investigates relationships between gender and achievement as well as gender and attitudes in a computer-integrated first year college mainstream calculus course in comparison with a similar non-computer-integrated course. The investigator analyzed data from pilot and experimental studies conducted at the University of Connecticut at Storrs in 1989-1993 and 1993-1994, respectively, in order to compare the calculus courses with respect to student achievement and attitudes with a focus on gender. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. Quantitative research instruments included common final examination scores and an attitude questionnaire; data were analyzed by ANOVA/ANCOVA and Chi-Square. Students were also interviewed to gain insights into their attitudes about their calculus course experience. The samples sizes of the experimental and control groups, respectively, were as follows for each analysis: common final examination score, Fall 1989 (25, 19), Spring 1990 (30, 26), Fall 1993 (102, 107), Spring 1994 (46, 84); the 1989-1993 study of number of subsequent courses (for which calculus is a prerequisite) and achievement in those courses, (54, 42); the 1993-1994 attitude survey, (93, 70); and interviews, (21, 19). Results of the achievement study indicated that students in the computer-integrated course performed significantly better on the common final exam in Fall 1993 and suggested that female students in the computer-integrated calculus course benefited more than any other subgroup. In the 1989-1993 pilot study, there was a significantly higher mean number of subsequent courses taken by male students than by female students; however, female students\u27 mean average grades in subsequent courses were significantly higher than mean average grades of male students. The results of the attitude survey and interviews indicated that the students in the experimental group tended to use calculators and computers more often for solving problems. Furthermore, the study revealed that the majority of respondents enjoy solving mathematics problems and believe that: calculus is useful and can be applied to real world problems; there is more than one way to solve a problem; and gender does not affect a person\u27s potential to be a scientist or an engineer. Overall, results of the investigation suggest that a computer-integrated calculus course is effective in the teaching of calculus. Recommendations and suggestions for future research are offered

Reinventing College Physics for Biologists: Explicating an epistemological curriculum

The University of Maryland Physics Education Research Group (UMd-PERG) carried out a five-year research project to rethink, observe, and reform introductory algebra-based (college) physics. This class is one of the Maryland Physics Department's large service courses, serving primarily life-science majors. After consultation with biologists, we re-focused the class on helping the students learn to think scientifically -- to build coherence, think in terms of mechanism, and to follow the implications of assumptions. We designed the course to tap into students' productive conceptual and epistemological resources, based on a theoretical framework from research on learning. The reformed class retains its traditional structure in terms of time and instructional personnel, but we modified existing best-practices curricular materials, including Peer Instruction, Interactive Lecture Demonstrations, and Tutorials. We provided class-controlled spaces for student collaboration, which allowed us to observe and record students learning directly. We also scanned all written homework and examinations, and we administered pre-post conceptual and epistemological surveys. The reformed class enhanced the strong gains on pre-post conceptual tests produced by the best-practices materials while obtaining unprecedented pre-post gains on epistemological surveys instead of the traditional losses.Comment: 35 pages including a 15 page appendix of supplementary material

Spring 2016

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Spartan Daily, March 3, 1981

Volume 76, Issue 25https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6729/thumbnail.jp

A case study in using electronic presentation media to teach mathematics

Over the past decade the United Kingdom (UK) Government has invested substantially in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in all sectors of education. Investment has been in infrastructure, staff development and educational software. At the same time there has been concern about the achievements in mathematics of school leavers and about the decline in numbers of students choosing to study mathematics in Higher Education. Through its Widening Participation initiative, (UK) Government intends to increase the number of students entering Higher Education. An account is given of a project to make appropriate use of computer-based projection materials in the delivery of a two-week mathematics summer school for students about to enter a foundation year which would prepare them for to entry to degree courses in mathematics and technology. This study asserts that computer-based presentation material can be used to implement differentiated pedagogy which can assist in making mathematics accessible to a group of adults with a wide range of prior attainment in mathematics