Precalculus Course Transformation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Wendy Smith, Allan Donsig, Nathan Wakefield A Presentation at the John N. Gardner Institute 2017 Gateway Course Experience Conference, February 28, 2017
Overview
• • • • •
Introduction, context (5 min) Institutional Transformation (15 min) Course Coordination & Instructors (15 min) Administrative Support (10 min) Q&A (15 min) (pro tip: ask your question earlier)
UNL by the Numbers (Fall 2016)
Students 25,897 Undergrads 20,833 Grad/Prof 5,064 ACT – first time freshmen 25.2 Freshman/Soph Retention 82.2% 6-year graduation 66.7% [UNL goal = 70%] Math Faculty Other Faculty Grad Students
32 (down from ~ 37) 25 (mostly adjuncts, a few postdocs) 78
Math Enrollment, Fall 2016
Math 100A Intermediate Algebra Math 101 College Algebra Math 102 Trigonometry Math 103 College Alg & Trig Math 104 Business Calculus Math 106 Calculus 1 Math 107 Calculus 2 Honors Calc II & III
436 • Two third of first-timefreshmen took Math in 545 fall 191 • 13.3% of fall enrollment 492 overall was in Math 738 courses 1,038 • No other dept even garners half that 448 percentage 90
A Brief History
2011-12: Emporium trial in 100A, good results, but… 2012- : Active Learning Mathematics in 101 & 103 Fall 2012: wrong balance Spring 2013-Spring 2014: revisions & improvement, try learning assistants Fall 2014: hire Director of First Year Math, dedicated classrooms, pedagogy course Spring 2016: first changes to mainstream calculus
What happened?
What is the Problem?
• Average of 25% DFW at R1 institutions in Calculus • Failing math correlates highly with freshman dropouts • Beliefs about & attitudes toward mathematics K-20 follow a decreasing trajectory (Grover, 2015) • After freshman year, students switch away from STEM majors (9-25%)
Effort Alignment
• Goal: increase student success in freshmen math courses § Lower DFW rates § More STEM majors § Higher rates of freshmen retention & 6-year graduation • Aligned with university goals for freshmen retention & graduation rates • Need to align efforts with research literature
Active Learning
Classroom approaches that engage students in “active learning” improve retention of information and critical thinking skills, compared with a sole reliance on lecturing, and increase persistence of students in STEM majors. (PCAST, 2012) Undergrads in active learning environments can learn more effectively, resulting in increased achievement and improved dispositions (Freeman et al., 2014; Laursen et al., 2014; Rasmussen & Kwon, 2007), particularly for underrepresented groups (Laursen et al., 2011).
Institutional Transformation
• • • • •
Systemic efforts Common vision Passionate leaders Data-based decisions Don’t underestimate complexity
(Elrod & Kezar, 2016; Kezar, 2014)
Change Framework
With Active Learning Mathematics Networked Improvement Community, since 2013: systemic coordinated efforts
Local Data
• • • • • •
Access (harder than it seems) DFW rates Course-taking trajectories Student demographics Student Survey (beliefs) Focus group interviews
DFW Rates
Student Beliefs CALCS UNL Spring 2016 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1
100A ALMpre
101 ALMpost
FLEXpre
102 FLEXpost
103 NONpre
104 NONpost
USEpre
106 USEpost
• Pre-Post changes are not statistically significant (victory!) • Math 103 & 106 (precal and calc 1) students see math as more useful than precalculus students
Course Coordination
• • • •
Common Lesson Plans Common Course Worksheets Common Online Homework Commonly Exams, Commonly Grade
Our Structure
Support Structure
• Beginning of term orientation (3 days) • Course structure & what to do in week 1 • Graduate Level Pedagogy Course • Weekly Course Meetings
Pedagogical Training
• 3-cr grad course: Teaching and Learning at the Post-Secondary Level • Not just about organizing the pre-calculus courses, nor a support group, but a course in education theory, literature, and practice. (Evidence Based Practice) • Students observe classes, read and discuss papers, and write analyses of student work.
Student Focussed
• We want GTAs to plan future teaching actions based on their students. • Example: In one assignment GTAs were asked to analyze student work, to try to identify an area where the lesson plan may need improvement. Once a struggle is identified, develop a lesson plan that any other pre-calculus instructor could use to address that struggle.
Results
“While it may be tempting to simply authoritatively state the correct order in which to perform horizontal transformations, doing so effectively removes ownership of knowledge from students, and encourages them to view mathematics as a set of arbitrary rules to be applied blindly. By removing ownership from students, we ultimately discourage students from building their own base of knowledge surrounding the topic.”
How did courses change?
Class time extended 101: from 3 weekly classes of 50 min to 3 of 75 min 103: from 5 weekly of 50 to 3 of 50 and 2 of 75 Workbooks and Lesson Plans created lesson plans and worksheets (make active learning easy to do) Common Exams, graded in common consistency in evaluation, emphasize concepts, reasoning, word problems – change from HS
How did courses change? II
Online homework – in-house WebWork server consistency across courses; ease of use; lack of “templates” - primitive is better! Dedicated classrooms – round tables, lots of board space not fit for lecturing, no back of the room Course Readiness Activity – online mastery exam of prerequisite material in first two weeks; engage students early & identify who needs extra help
Support Systems
First Year Math Task Force faculty leadership (by the right faculty) ensure academic credibility analyze data and help change course take responsibility for course design Active Administrative Support (Chair, College, University) crucial to success of program need many changes quickly to transform course need resources for this, support to overcome inertia
Advice
Identify role models and steal from them freely Collaborate with other institutions Apply for minigrant from SEMINAL (RFP soon) www.aplu.org/SEMINAL
Next Steps
Collaborative Research: NSF I-USE Grant Ø 5-year, $3 million, 2016-2020 Ø APLU (Association of Public and Landgrant Universities (Howard Gobstein) Ø University of Colorado Boulder (David Webb, Rob Tubbs, David Grant) Ø University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Wendy Smith, Allan Donsig, Nathan Wakefield) Ø San Diego State University (Chris Rasmussen, Michael O’Sullivan, Janet Bowers) Goal: be)er understand how to enact and support ins5tu5onal change aimed at implemen5ng ac5ve learning in undergraduate mathema5cs learning environments
Ø http://www.aplu.org/seminal/
