Measurement of Student Perceptions and Attitudes in Mathematics

As in other subjects, student perceptions of and attitudes towards mathematics play a role in their motivation and approaches to learning. This is of special concern in mathematics as so many students take terminal math courses at the post-secondary level as part of other programs. Ultimately, we are interested in how these attitudes influence further math course choices and student performance in the courses they do take, as well as instructional choices that can promote more expert-like attitudes.This academic year, our research group adapted an existing survey for Physics (the CLASS developed at U. Colorado), a measure of student orientation towards expert attitudes about the subject, which including perceptions of math as a field and (self-perceived) dispositions in math problem solving. We surveyed UBC students at the beginning and end of a range of early Math courses (primarily first-year calculus courses), as well as a variety of experts in our department (faculty, graduate students and post-docs). This has allowed us to assess student attitudes and perceptions, and to track how they shift over time, relative to an expert response. Similar adaptations of this survey exist for other science disciplines (see http://www.colorado.edu/sei/class/).In this presentation, I will discuss some existing tools in math and other disciplines for assessing student attitudes, review the development process we are following, and show highlights from our preliminary results

Discipline-based educational development: examples from four Canadian universities

Discipline-based educational development , integrating the principles of teaching and learning with specific content knowledge of a discipline, is emerging as a complement to more traditional, centralized models of teaching support, bringing with it its own advantages and challenges. Partly, it is a question of belonging: it helps to be part of a team of people - possibly with a variety of specialties in areas like curriculum, pedagogy, educational technology - and operating from a centre offers this important support, but coming from a single unit across campus may make it harder to connect with those teaching in departments. Conversely, working in a department creates many opportunities to connect with faculty and students, but can be isolating as there is unlikely to be a team of any size at the department level doing similar work. This panel discussion will explore four examples of discipline-based educational development at Canadian universities, highlighting successful initiatives and challenges faced by educators in implementing this approach. In one case, teaching is transforming via graduate student projects within specific courses, and the others have variations on teaching centre models with different levels of connections to departments - in one case with staff members embedded in departments. We will also be interested to learn of other models from those who attend the discussion. Overall, this panel discussion aims to raise awareness of the value of discipline-based education development in STEM education and to provide a platform for dialogue and collaboration among educators and educational developers in Canadian post-secondary institutions

Singing for people with aphasia (SPA): Results of a pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial of a group singing intervention investigating acceptability and feasibility

This is the final version. Available on open access from BMJ Publishing Group via the DOI in this recordObjectives: Pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial (RCT) for the ‘Singing groups for People with Aphasia’ (SPA) intervention to assess: (1) the acceptability and feasibility of participant recruitment, randomisation and allocation concealment; (2) retention rates; (3) variance of continuous outcome measures; (4) outcome measure completion and participant burden; (5) fidelity of intervention delivery; (6) SPA intervention costs; (7) acceptability and feasibility of trial and intervention to participants and others involved. Design: A two-group, assessor-blinded, randomised controlled external pilot trial with parallel mixed methods process evaluation and economic evaluation. Setting: Three community-based cohorts in the South-West of England. Participants: Eligible participants with post-stroke aphasia were randomised 1:1 to SPA or control. Intervention: The manualised SPA intervention was delivered over 10 weekly singing group sessions, led by a music facilitator and assisted by an individual with post-stroke aphasia. The intervention was developed using the Information-Motivation-Behavioural skills model of behaviour change and targeted psychosocial outcomes. Control and intervention participants all received an aphasia information resource pack. Outcome measures: Collected at baseline, 3 and 6 months post-randomisation, candidate primary outcomes were measured (well-being, quality of life and social participation) as well as additional clinical outcomes. Feasibility, acceptability and process outcomes included recruitment and retention rates, and measurement burden; and trial experiences were explored in qualitative interviews. Results: Of 87 individuals screened, 42 participants were recruited and 41 randomised (SPA=20, Control=21); 36 participants (SPA=17, Control=19) completed 3-month follow-up, 34 (SPA=18, Control=16) completed 6-month follow-up. Recruitment and retention (83%) were acceptable for a definitive RCT, and participants did not find the study requirements burdensome. High fidelity of the intervention delivery was shown by high attendance rates and facilitator adherence to the manual, and participants found SPA acceptable. Sample size estimates for a definitive RCT and primary/secondary outcomes were identified. Conclusions: The SPA pilot RCT fulfilled its objectives, and demonstrated that a definitive RCT of the intervention would be both feasible and acceptable.Stroke Associatio

Teaching and Learning of Calculus

This survey focuses on the main trends in the field of calculus education. Despite their variety, the findings reveal a cornerstone issue that is strongly linked to the formalism of calculus concepts and to the difficulties it generates in the learning and teaching process. As a complement to the main text, an extended bibliography with some of the most important references on this topic is included. Since the diversity of the research in the field makes it difficult to produce an exhaustive state-of-the-art summary, the authors discuss recent developments that go beyond this survey and put forward new research questions

Large-scale change in teaching practices via department-based educational development: Conclusions of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative

To follow-up on our in-progress reports of previous years, we present key findings at the conclusion of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The core model for change has consisted of hiring and training “Science Teaching and Learning Fellows” at the post-doc or contract faculty level to partner with faculty members in bringing the principles of “scientific teaching” into departments: (1) establishing what students should learn; (2) determining what students are actually learning by systematically gathering data; (3) deploying, adapting, or designing research-based instructional methods, assessments, and curriculum that support the intended learning; and (4) evaluating and disseminating results. Beyond the primary goal of transforming undergraduate science education – with a majority of faculty having engaged with the fellows, influencing the teaching of nearly 200 courses that represent about three quarters of all credit hours taught in the UBC Faculty of Science – and an associated shift in department cultures, other accomplishments include a substantial accrued base of local data, a well-used website featuring evidence-based teaching practices, over 100 research publications including new measurement tools and teaching practice implementations, shaping the careers of dozens of fellows, and inspiring similar work at a number of institutions. Those who attend this session will learn about models for change in higher education articulated in recent years, with the components of this large-scale initiative mapped onto the different models as an example. They will also learn of recommended practices to support and evaluate change efforts in their own departments/institutions

Improving Science Education at the University of British Columbia: The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative

Since 2007, the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) has influenced the teaching of faculty and the learning of tens of thousands of students by promoting the expertise-based classroom , guiding students on the path from novice thinking toward expertise in the discipline. The key factor in this change has been the addition of Science Teaching and Learning Fellows (STLFs) to departments. An STLF has deep disciplinary expertise and training in current learning science in order to partner with faculty members as a course consultant in creating or adapting evidence-based methods and measuring effectiveness toward learning. The CWSEI has led to extensive success in transforming undergraduate science education at UBC, with a particular specialty in high-engagement methods in large classrooms where traditional lecture had long dominated. Classrooms with active participation, even at the early undergraduate level, are now perceived as relatively normal by students, and feedback has been positive overall from students and faculty involved in these course projects. Within departments and across the Faculty of Science, STLFs and their partner faculty have created communities around teaching innovation -- a culture change essential to any lasting effect. A significant knowledge base of practical resources and published evidence of effectiveness has accrued (see cwsei.ubc.ca, particularly the Resources section), and the STLF model is being adopted elsewhere. This poster presentation will describe the Initiative as of 2015, lessons learned around the novel STLF role, and key indicators of success including department activity, quantified changes in teaching practice, and research output

Facilitated Group Problem-Solving Sessions in First-year Calculus

The Calculus Workshop Program offered at UBC provides an activity where students in a first calculus course meet once a week outside of lecture time to work on provided math problems in small groups, facilitated by TAs. This may sound simple enough, but in fact the design and delivery of the program is a complex process.Started in 2002 as a pilot project in one course section, the program grew each year and was extended to all sections and became a mandatory activity replacing one hour of lecture time concurrently in two different courses in 2008, involving more than 900 students and a team of 25 TAs each year. To make sure the program was delivered effectively across all course sections, we undertook a two-year study whose goals were to identify possible pitfalls, implement changes, and measure their effects on student attitudes and learning. The study was performed by an research associate (not an instructor) observer who reviewed workshop materials, interviewed course instructors, and observed students\u27 work and their interaction with TAs during the workshops. Students and TAs were also surveyed repeatedly, and data on student performance were analysed.An expanded administrative structure and TA training program, more prominent learning goals, the addition of a quiz activity as well as tighter course co-ordination in general have all combined to improve student attitudes of the workshops and produce a higher correlation of student performance in the workshops and their grades in the other components of the course

Sturm–Liouville problems with boundary conditions depending quadratically on the eigenparameter

AbstractWe study Sturm–Liouville problems with right-hand boundary conditions depending on the spectral parameter in a quadratic manner. A modified Crum–Darboux transformation is used to produce chains of problems almost isospectral with the given one. The problems in the chain have boundary conditions which in various cases are affine or bilinear in the spectral parameter, and in all cases culminate in a problem with constant boundary conditions. This extends recent work of Binding, Browne, Code and Watson when the right-hand condition is either an affine function of the spectral parameter with negative leading coefficient or a Herglotz function

Leading departmentally-based change initiatives: The Science Education Initiative Handbook

Educational change efforts focused at the department level can be powerful. Positive outcomes, however, are not automatic. In this poster, we share some of the big lessons learned from the Science Education Initiatives founded by Carl Wieman at the University of British Columbia and University of Colorado Boulder, which centered on department-based Discipline-Based Education Specialists (DBESs), disciplinary experts with training in the science of teaching and learning who served as catalysts in transforming undergraduate science and math education by supporting a shift to research-informed teaching practices. The design, stories, and outcomes of the SEIs are described in detail in Wieman’s 2017 book, Improving How Universities Teach Science, while we have compiled recommendations and resources into the complementary SEI Handbook, an open resource that is available for reading and download at https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/seihandbook/. This poster offers a high-level summary of the Handbook and its recommendations for its three main audiences: initiative leaders who pull together and oversee project activities in the department; departmental leaders who plan the work, engage with colleagues, and supervise the DBESs; and the DBESs themselves, who are agents of change as department-based educational developers. As such, this work will be of value to anyone interested in collective efforts to transform teaching at their institution. Chasteen, S. V., and Code, W. J. (2018). The Science Education Initiative Handbook. Accessed at https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/seihandbook/. Wieman, C. E. (2017). Improving how universities teach science: lessons from the Science Education Initiative. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press