Collaborative Research: Reshaping Mathematical Identity by Valuing Creativity in Calculus

在这个合作项目中，拉凡尔纳大学和俄克拉何马大学将制定、评估和分享教学策略，以更好地为学生从事STEM职业做好准备。根据IBM和世界经济论坛最近的报告，创造力是STEM职业中最受欢迎的技能之一。因此，帮助本科生培养创造力可以支持我国STEM劳动力未来的成功。在本科生的数学学习中，数学创造力是一个研究较少但意义重大的研究领域。这个合作项目将研究创造力及其与学生作为数学家的身份认同和信心的关系。这项研究将调查将数学创造力练习纳入微积分入门课程的效果。这门课程是创造力训练的主要目标，因为大多数希望主修STEM领域的学生都需要通过微积分。实施专业发展并研究其对教师和学生的影响，将为大学教师提出建议，以提高学生在STEM本科职业生涯早期的数学创造力。该项目有两个目标：开发和使用现有的问题解决创造力测验(CPR)，明确评价微积分I中的创造力，并调查在问题解决中使用CPR评价创造力对学生作为数学家的身份认同的影响。这项工作将通过在不同机构的多个实施来完成，包括合作的大学和中俄克拉荷马大学、北科罗拉多大学格里利大学、纽黑文大学和加州州立理工大学波莫纳。该项目将调查教师如何：a)通过他们在解决问题上对CPR的各种使用来明确地重视创造力；b)评估基于创造力的任务；以及c)在整个课程中关注学生的情感。该项目的一部分位于为拉美裔服务的机构内，有可能进一步确定以创造力为中心的教学对拉美裔学生的有效性，并有可能扩大该项目的影响。创造性和公平性的教学策略的交集将是另一项探索的重点。通过培养学生的创造力，该项目旨在建立数学课堂的公平性，最终目标是在STEM工作人员中建立公平性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In this collaborative project, the University of La Verne and the University of Oklahoma will develop, assess, and share teaching strategies to better prepare students for STEM careers. According to recent reports from IBM and the World Economic Forum, creativity is one of the most sought-after skills in STEM occupations. Thus, helping undergraduates develop creativity could support the future success of our nation's STEM workforce. Creativity in mathematics is an under-researched but very significant area of study in undergraduate students' mathematical learning. This collaborative project will study creativity and its relationship to students' identity as mathematicians and confidence. The study will investigate the effects of incorporating mathematical creativity exercises into an introductory calculus course. This course is a prime target for creativity training, since passing calculus is required for most students who wish to major in STEM fields. The implementation of professional development and studying its effects on both faculty and students will result in recommendations for university instructors to enhance mathematical creativity early in students' STEM undergraduate careers. The project has two goals: To develop and use an existing Creativity-in-Progress Rubric (CPR) on Problem Solving to explicitly value creativity in Calculus I and to investigate the effects of valuing creativity using the CPR on Problem Solving on students' identities as mathematicians. This work will be done through multiple implementations at various institutions, including the collaborating universities and the University of Central Oklahoma, the University of Northern Colorado Greely, the University of New Haven, and California State Polytechnic University Pomona. The project will investigate how instructors: a) explicitly value creativity through their various uses of the CPR on Problem Solving; b) assess creativity-based tasks; and c) attend to students' affect throughout the course. A part of the project is situated within Hispanic-Serving Institutions, providing the potential to further identify effectiveness of creativity-centered pedagogies on Latinx students and potentially broaden the impact of this project. The intersection of teaching strategies for creativity and equity will be the focus of an additional exploration. Through developing students' creativity, the project aims to build equity in the mathematics classroom, with the ultimate goal of building equity in the STEM workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.