The Tuskegee Partnership for Personal Authenticity in College Mathematics

每年都有大量的学生在大学里学习微积分预备课程，他们中的许多人都很难看出课程内容的相关性。为了使数学学习对学生更有激励和个人意义，该项目将通过学生选择的研究主题，让本科生直接将微积分预科与他们的个人生活联系起来。项目实施和研究活动将在塔斯基吉大学、南联合州立社区学院和查塔胡奇谷社区学院讲授的微积分预科部分进行，由一个多学科团队领导，该团队由一名教育研究员、数学家、数学讲师和一名学院统计教员组成。这三所学校的微积分预科课程将作为实施组和比较组。实施部分的学生将使用技术来调查复杂的、现实的数据，并专注于将关键的数学思想与这些数据联系起来。项目团队将研究实施活动，以使学生更充分地沉浸在数学中，加强数学与他们生活的相关性，并改善他们的数学观，他们的数学理解和他们的成就。采用准实验设计和前后评估，该项目将解决以下研究问题：(1)与使用教师选择的情境单元和不使用单元项目的学生相比，使用个人真实情境中的数学任务的学生是否对数学表现出更积极的态度和信念？如果是，到什么程度？(2)与使用教师选择的情境单元和不使用单元项目的学生相比，使用个人真实情境中的数学任务的学生是否表现出更大的学习数学的内在动机？如果是，到什么程度？(3)在标准化课程期末考试中，使用真实情境中的数学任务的学生是否比使用教师选择的情境单元和不使用单元项目的学生表现更好？如果是，到什么程度？这些课程的通过率（完成课程并获得A、B或C的学生的百分比）是否更高？如果是，到什么程度？(4)与使用教师选择的情境单元的学生相比，使用个人真实情境中的数学任务的学生在数学和现实世界表征之间建立有效联系的形式下的项目工作是否表现出更强的数学理解？如果是，到什么程度？本研究将有助于建立关于如何提高学生对数学、跨学科和正规学校教育之外的生活内容联系的理解和欣赏的知识库。

Each year, a large number of students take pre-calculus in college, many of whom struggle to see the relevance of the content. Toward making mathematics learning more motivating and personally meaningful to students, this project will engage undergraduates in directly connecting pre-calculus to their personal lives through topics that they choose to examine. Project implementation and research activities will take place in sections of pre-calculus taught at Tuskegee University, Southern Union State Community College, and Chattahoochee Valley Community College, under the leadership of a multi-disciplinary team comprised of an education researcher, mathematicians, mathematics instructors, and a college statistics faculty member. Sections of pre-calculus at all three institutions will serve as implementation and comparison groups. Students in the implementation sections will use technology to investigate complex, realistic data and focus on the connection of key mathematical ideas to those data. The project team will study the implementation activities as a way to immerse students more fully in the mathematics, to strengthen the relevance of the mathematics to their lives, and to improve their views of mathematics, their mathematical understanding, and their achievement. Using a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-assessments, the project will address the following research questions: (1) Do students using mathematics tasks situated in personally authentic contexts exhibit more positive attitudes towards and beliefs about mathematics than students using teacher-selected contextual units and those not using unit projects? If so, to what extent? (2) Do students using mathematics tasks situated in personally authentic contexts exhibit greater intrinsic motivation to learn mathematics than students using teacher-selected contextual units and those not using unit projects? If so, to what extent? (3) Do students using mathematics tasks situated in personally authentic contexts perform better on standardized course final exams than students using teacher-selected contextual units and those not using unit projects? If so, to what extent? Are the course pass rates (% of students who complete the course that achieve an A, B, or C) in those courses higher? If so, to what extent? (4) Does the project work of students using mathematics tasks situated in personally authentic contexts show greater mathematical understanding in the form of valid connections made between mathematical and real-world representations compared to the project work of students using teacher-selected contextual units? If so, to what extent? This study will contribute to the knowledge base about ways to enhance students' understanding and appreciation of content connections within mathematics, across disciplines, and to life outside of formal schooling.