Abstract
Medaille College is a Liberal Arts Colleges in Western NY with focus on student success. The college is presented with a higher percentages of freshman students that could be categorized by the word underprepared. In Intermediate Algebra courses around 70% will refer to their abilities to succeed at mathematics nonexistent or that mathematics is not their forte. One way to help students to build their confidence in doing mathematics is to introduce the mathematical concepts by nontraditional methods (active learning, inquiry based learning, etc). This paper is about different strategies used in order to keep the students active and involved during mathematical courses. Reading skills and working collaboratively influence drastically mathematical understanding. Approaches that promote active learning require that students do something as read, discuss, write, that requires higher order thinking. There is a link between active learning and working in groups(collaboratively). Clever reasoning along with algebraic knowledge will help to solve what seems to be an impossible algebraic problem. Incorporating new pedagogical methods into the teaching process will increase students’ capabilities of understanding mathematical concepts. Furthermore, their confidence level will increase and with that their chance to succeed in mathematics. Some interesting mathematical problems are included.
Presenters
Vochita MihaiProfessor of Mathematics, Teaching, Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, University at Buffalo, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Science, Mathematics and Technology Learning
KEYWORDS
Mathematics, Active Learning, Mathematical Confidence, Higher Order of Thinking
