Assessment Plan for Goal V, Quantitative Literacy,

 of the General Learning Outcomes of Georgia State University

 

Developed by

The Department of Mathematics & Statistics’

Committee for Improvement of Instruction

 

Background: “Basic quantitative literacy depends on students being introduced to the foundations of quantitative reasoning and then given reinforcement experiences which develop and deepen in the student the habits of thinking which the student has been encouraged to develop. Taking one course is not enough to endow a student with a habit of mind, but completing a carefully devised program can provide sufficient practice to make a pattern of thought part of the student's intellectual tools. The construction of such a program requires leadership from the mathematics faculty and other faculty as well as commitment to the three other major points of this report.”[1]

 

Goal of committee:  To develop a plan for assessing Goal V of the university’s general learning outcomes. Specifically, develop a plan to evaluate students enrolled in MATH 1101, 1111, 1113, 2211 (the four courses most often used by students in Area A of the core) in

Goal V.  Quantitative Literacy

1.                                    Students effectively perform arithmetic operations, as well as reason and draw appropriate conclusions from numerical information.

2.                                    Students effectively translate problem situations into their symbolic representations and use those representations to solve problems.

These elements are 2 of 5 elements of quantitative literacy (QL) as identified by the Mathematical Association of America, the largest professional society that focuses on undergraduate mathematics education:

In short, every college graduate should be able to apply simple mathematical methods to the solution of real-world problems. A quantitatively literate college graduate should be able to:

1.      Interpret mathematical models such as formulas, graphs, tables, and schematics, and draw inferences from them.

2.      Represent mathematical information symbolically, visually, numerically, and verbally.

3.      Use arithmetical, algebraic, geometric and statistical methods to solve problems.

4.      Estimate and check answers to mathematical problems in order to determine reasonableness, identify alternatives, and select optimal results.

5.      Recognize that mathematical and statistical methods have limits. [2]

An additional consideration that the Department will investigate concerns students’ attitudes towards mathematics and their ability to “do mathematics.” Among other principles similar to those just delineated, AMATY (American Mathematical Association of Two Year Schools) is a proponent of the following principle:

The mathematics that students study should be meaningful and relevant. Basic skills, general principles, algorithms, and problem-solving strategies should be introduced to the students in the context of real, understandable problem-solving situations so that students gain an appreciation for mathematics as a discipline, are able to use it as a base for further study, and can transfer this knowledge to problem-solving situations at work or in everyday life.[3]

According to the CUPM document all quantitative literacy programs will normally have the following components:

1.      Explicit requirements of quantitative experience for college entry or for entry into courses or experiences which can be credited towards the baccalaureate degree;

2.      Placement testing intended to help determine appropriate entry into the quantitative literacy program;

3.      Foundation experience(s) to be accomplished ordinarily within the first year of the student's college work;

4.      Further quantitative experiences in diverse contexts to be accomplished during a student's sophomore, junior, and senior college years so as to be interspersed throughout the work of these years. [4]

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics is in accordance with recommendation 2 as it requires a mathematics placement test be given to each new freshman or transfer student without Area A credit. This test assesses a student’s current skill level and prerequisite checking ensures that students can only register for classes that they are prepared to take. The following assessment plan is an effort to measure our level of success in meeting step (3) in mathematics courses typically used in Area A. Step (4) will be incorporated in individual degree programs.

 

In Quantitative Reasoning for College Graduates, suggestions of how a department can implement QL strategies and assessments are given. These are:

§         establishing collaborative learning situations,

§         utilizing a wide variety of writing assignments,

§         studying significant mathematical models,

§         conducting explorations using calculators or computers,

§         and employing team projects.

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics intends to eventually implement each of these strategies in each of its primary Area A courses over the next 18-24 months.

 

Plan elements: (pre-pilot:  Maymester 2004, full pilot in regular summer 2004; full implementation fall 2004)

 

1)                                          ATTITUDE SURVEY. 

a.   Survey of Attitudes Toward Mathematics.  This was SATS (Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics) modified by replacing the word “statistics” with “mathematics” thus, keeping the validity constant. Permission has been granted by the original author of SATS for this use and change.

b.  We’d like to see if there is an increase or decrease as a result of taking the course.  Thus also determining whether the attitude is course-based or instructor-based.

 

2)                                          PRE/POST TESTING OF STUDENT ABILITIES IN MODELING.

Our idea is to test during the first week, middle of the semester as well as at the end.  This will tell us the length of time associated with their learning.  We intend on studying how to improve this by tracking those students that progress through lower level sequences.

 

Plan elements: (to be implemented in future terms)

 

3)                                          TECHNOLOGY COMPONENT.

Partial implementation in the Fall 2004. 

There will be 6 sections of MATH1111 that will have a lab component on Fridays (with lectures on Mondays and Wednesdays). 4 sections will run on MyMathLab, one will run on MathZone, and the last will be the “homegrown” version on WebCT written by faculty members in the Math Department.

 

Spring 2005

Expand this experiment to MATH 1113.

 

4)               PARTIAL IMPLEMENTATION IN THE FALL 2004.

The students in the test sections of MATH 1111 will be responsible for problem-based-learning exercises, as well as graded quizzes and homework to be specifically completed in the lab.

 

Spring 2005

Expand this experiment to MATH 1113.

 

5)   Increase the writing component in each Area A class by expanding the problem-based learning components in all classes.