Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
A Reformed College Algebra Course: Understanding Instructors' and Students' Beliefs About Teaching and Learning Mathematics
Abstract
Reforms of undergraduate mathematics (e.g. Bressoud & Rasmussen, 2015; Laursen et. al, 2011) are changing the practice of teaching and learning within their courses. Prior research has established strong connections between practices and beliefs (Brickhouse, 1990; Raymond, 1997; Aguirre & Speer, 1999), therefore changing the practices within these courses may be affecting the beliefs of those tasked to enact the reformed practices. Thus, part of the work of the reforms in undergraduate mathematics is to learn how and why these beliefs may or may not be changing in this culture of reform. In this qualitative case study, I analyzed the beliefs of two instructors, one who was the Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) and the other who was the Learning Assistant (LA), and two freshman level students. All four participants were part the same section of a semester-long College Algebra course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which had been reformed to include more student-centered practices. The central question of this study is: What happens to instructors’ and students’ beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics when taking a reformed College Algebra course? Data analyzed included pre and post surveys, interviews using the pre and post surveys, interviews using video clips of moments from their classroom, and observation notes of the class. Analysis suggests that beliefs held by these participants change in different ways. One kind of change observed reflected a transformation from believing one set of beliefs to a very different set of beliefs. For other participants, their beliefs changed in more subtle ways. Learning from these kinds of change are important and necessary for reforms to become sustainable and successful (Cohen & Hill, 2001). I also find that making teaching decisions public was a significant catalyst for why beliefs were changed.
Subject Area
Mathematics education|Higher education
Recommended Citation
Williams, Mary, "A Reformed College Algebra Course: Understanding Instructors' and Students' Beliefs About Teaching and Learning Mathematics" (2016). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI10139058.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI10139058