GendermRelated Differential Item Functioning on a Middle-School Mathematics Peformance Assessment

Will performance assessments in mathematics have gender DIF? Do male and female examinees provide similar solution strategies?     

Beyond Computation and Correctness: Contributions of Open-Ended Tasks in Examining U. S. and Chinese Students'Mathematical Performance

How do Chinese and American students compare on open-ended mathematics tasks? Do they employ similar solution strategies? What challenges in test development emerge in such studies?     

Do men and women perform academic work differently?

Tertiary Education and Management - Why is the gender gap so large in researchers’ career progression? Do men and women have different priorities in their academic careers? This study...     

Examing Gender DIF on a Multiplechoice Test of Mathematics: A Confirmatory Approach

Do eighth-grade males and females display the same DIF patterns as older examinees? Are the patterns the same for different content areas in mathematics? Does a DIF test for essential dimensionality yield expected results?     

Gender differences in confidence during number-line estimation

Metacognition and Learning - Prior research has found gender differences in spatial tasks in which men perform better, and are more confident, than women. Do gender differences also occur in...     

Economic independence for adolescents with special educational needs

Do young men and women diagnosed with special educational needs succeed in finding full‐time employment that provides sufficient income to live on? The analyses presented in this paper are based on interviews conducted between October 2001 and April 2002 of nearly 500 young people with various types of disabilities. The young people who were interviewed have been studied prospectively since they entered upper secondary school as special needs students six or seven years earlier. These adolescents are followed through a critical phase of life when they are trying to find their way in society as adult individuals. This process is gradual and involves making tentative steps in various arenas. A crucial topic is how these young men and women, between 23 and 25 years of age, succeed in gaining employment that allows them to become economically independent. This is a vulnerable process for most youth, but it is especially challenging for young people with functional difficulties who have experienced protracted and disjointed transitions throughout their educational trajectories.     

Attitude Toward Mathematics and the Predictive Validity of a Measure of Quantitative Aptitude

Abstract

The distribution of inter-test sums of squares for 7,021 freshmen was found to be markedly skewed positively. Formens high variability was usually due to a relatively lower English score; for women, a lower mathematics score. The “high-variables” (sum of squares 100 or more) had higher variances on each of the tests than did the “low-variables.” High-variable men were most likely to have mathematics as their highest score and social studies as lowest; for women, high social studies and low mathematics was the most likely combination. For men, the numbers of “high- variables” majoring In mathematics and “low-variables” in English were disproportionately high. Fathers of high- variable men had an education that was either higher or lower than the modal level for all the fathers.     

Computer Science in Liberal Arts Colleges

When a liberal arts college decides to include computer science as one of its academic disciplines, a number of questions arise. What is an appropriate curriculum? What sort of laboratory support does this new discipline need? How does a small liberal arts school attract, retain, and evaluate faculty in this area? Do computer science faculty become a separate department or remain joined with mathematics or some other discipline? In short, what must be done to put computer science on equal footing with mathematics and other scientific disciplines? This paper addresses these questions.     

Doctrine of Confucius and Mencius — the Shackle That Keeps Women in Bondage

The school of thought represented by Confucius and Mencius has strong contempt for women. It asserts male superiority and female inferiority and holds that women are subordinate to men. Confucius ranted: "Women and inferior men [meaning slaves] are hard to get along with, they get out of hand when befriended and they resent it when kept at a distance." His loyal successor Mencius said: "Do not disobey your husband, because to look upon compliance as their correct course is the rule for women." This meant that women must do as men say and the wife must in no way act against the wishes of her husband.     

Dealing with ‘fragile identities’: resistance and refiguring in women mathematics students

Many learners may be successful in mathematics but nevertheless see themselves as existing only on the margins of the practice, or as lacking stability in it – in this sense, they have what can be called a fragile identity. Although this kind of relationship with mathematics is not limited to girls and women, they do appear to express such fragile identities more often or more readily. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from undergraduates in three English universities, this paper presents an analysis of the way in which university mathematics is differentially experienced by men and women, and of the part this may play in women’s ongoing narratives of self as mathematicians. It is suggested that some women resist traditional positionings in the mathematics world, drawing on local resources which enable a sense of agency as successful students and a refiguring of their relationships with mathematics.     

Sex-related differences on objective tests among undergraduates

Objective tests, such as multiple-choice and relationship analysis questions, are often used in mathematics to assess certain ranges of skills and abilities. This article examines the performance of men and women students in mathematics at university level and shows that there are significant differences between the sexes.     

Teaching assistants’ roles in daily mathematics lessons

Background:?The increasing numbers of teaching assistants (TAs) and their widening role in English primary classrooms is part of wider international developments. Several large quantitative studies have been influential in shaping debate, but little qualitative research exists on TAs and the content of their activity in the key area of mathematics.

Purpose:?The article addresses the question: How do TAs in primary schools perceive their role in daily mathematics lessons?

Sample:?Twenty-four TAs employed in English primary schools participated in the study. Their experience ranged from 2 to 20 years. Two were men; the rest were women.

Design and methods:?Interviews were undertaken in the spring and summer of 2011, transcribed and coded using Glaser and Strauss’ recommended method (B. Glaser and A. Strauss, 1967, The discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for qualitative research; Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing Company). A typology of TA activity was created and used together with other cross-cutting factors to ascertain what TAs did in general and, specifically, in mathematics teaching.

Results:?The results show that previous pictures generated from large-scale quantitative studies of TAs working with children seen as having the greatest difficulty in mathematics are essentially (though not universally) correct. However, they may be internally differentiated to a greater extent than previously envisaged.

Conclusion:?The range of TA activities in mathematics classrooms is considerably wider than previously thought; professional development for TAs and teachers needs to take account of this.     

Building the wall brick by brick: one prospective teacher’s experiences with mathematics anxiety

Mathematics education researchers have investigated mathematics anxiety in prospective elementary teachers. While many of these studies have focused on the bodily sensations and emotions of mathematics anxiety, particularly those felt in assessment situations, opportunities remain to investigate how prospective elementary teachers interpret their experiences with mathematics anxiety and connect them over time to compose personal histories of mathematics anxiety. Currently, over 90 % of elementary teachers in US schools are women, and women have been shown to suffer more from mathematics anxiety than do men. In this article, I analyze how one woman prospective elementary teacher described, explained, and related her experiences of mathematics anxiety across her personal narratives of learning mathematics as a K-12 student and of learning to teach mathematics as a college student in a teacher preparation program. My research demonstrates that experiences of mathematics anxiety may persist beyond assessment situations to influence women prospective elementary teachers’ larger mathematical histories. I also show that women prospective elementary teachers may interpret mathematics anxiety as specific fears (e.g., loss of opportunities for social participation) and may develop particular coping strategies related to those fears. Finally, I point out that while a coping strategy may be used consistently across K-12 mathematics learning and undergraduate teacher preparation, and may even offer a woman prospective elementary teacher some relief from mathematics anxiety, it may also limit her mathematics learning and professional development. To conclude, I present implications of my research for mathematics teacher educators.     

Finding a voice? Narrating the female self in mathematics

If mathematics is a male domain, where does this leave women who do mathematics? In a world where there is little or no discursive space in which to be female, women who enter in must do identity work in order to achieve what is often an uneasy presence. This paper builds on recent research which suggests that some undergraduate women are however finding new spaces for belonging in the world of mathematics through critical reflection and collective challenge to dominant discourses. Focussing on an analysis of two women’s narratives of their success in mathematics, it explores their multi-voiced accounts of self through the lens of Bakhtin’s dialogism. It discusses the scope of reflexivity in creating new identity spaces in refigured worlds.     

What Could be More Practical than Good Research?

These seem to be very special times for mathematics education. The public interest in the topic has never been greater. Probably the most prominent among the occurrences that occasioned this recent leap in popularity are international comparative studies such as TIMSS and PISA. The fact that, in spite of the ongoing efforts toward reform in mathematics education, many countries found the results of the international measurements of their students’ achievements rather disappointing led the ICME 10 Program Committee to create the Survey Team on Relations between Mathematics Education Research and Practice. The team, coordinated by the author of this talk, and including Aline Robert from France, Ole Skovsmose from Denmark, Yoshihiko Hashimoto from Japan, and Gelsa Knijnik from Brazil, was invited to reflect on the question of how research has been informing the practice of mathematics education over the last decade. Following the invitation, the Survey Team turned to the members of the mathematics education community asking them to answer three queries about their own work: (1) How would you describe the essence of your work in mathematics education over the last 5 years or so? (2) During this period, to what extent was your work stirred and influenced by the current state of mathematics education in your country and/or in the world? (3) Do you think that the work done by you and by your colleagues over the last five years or so had, or is going to have, an actual impact on the practice of mathematics education? Analysis of the 74 responses received from all over the world revealed several interesting trends. This article is the text of the ICME plenary address in which the author presented an “executive summary” of the findings.     

Evaluating mental models in mathematics: a comparison of methods

Cognitive scientists investigate mental models (how humans organize and structure knowledge in their minds) so as to understand human understanding of and interactions with the world. Cognitive and mental model research is concerned with internal conceptual systems that are not easily or directly observable. The goal of this research was to investigate the use of Evaluation of Mental Models (EMM) to assess the mental models of individuals and groups in solving complex problems and to compare novices and experts models as bases for providing feedback to learners. This study tested a qualified web-based assessment tool kit, Highly Interactive Model-based Assessment Tools and Technologies (HIMATT), in an as yet untested domain—mathematics. In this study, university students and their mathematics instructors used two tools in HIMATT, Dynamic Evaluation of Enhanced Problem Solving (DEEP) and Text-Model Inspection Trace of Concepts and Relations (T-MITOCAR). The research questions include: Do novice participants exhibit common patterns of thoughts when they conceptualize complex mathematical problems? Do novices conceptualize complex mathematical problems differently from experts? What differences in DEEP and T-MITOCAR patterns and responses exist according to the measures of HIMATT? Findings suggest that EMM and HIMATT could effectively support formative assessment in a complex mathematical domain. Finally, this study confirms a common assumption of cognitive scientists that the tool being used could affect the tool user’s understanding of the problem being solved. In this case, while DEEP and T-MITOCAR led to somewhat different expert models, both tools prove useful in support of formative assessment.     

Cultivating Parabolas in the Parlor Garden: Reconciling Mathematics Education and Feminine Ideals in Nineteenth-Century America

This article introduces the justification problem for mathematics, which it explores through the case study of 1820s–1840s rationales for the teaching of mathematics to women in the United States. It argues that, while educators in the 1820s justified women’s studies through mental discipline (a common reason for men’s study), those of the 1830s–1840s increasingly relied on separate, gendered justifications, tied to emerging ideals of middle-class femininity. This article therefore emphasizes the contingency of the justification problem, which serves to break the present-day cycle of gender stereotypes regarding mathematics.     

A study of gender effects in the science and mathematics course-taking behavior of a group of students who graduated from college in the late 1970s

The purpose of this study was to examine the high school and collegiate science and mathematics participation and performance of a group of students who graduated from a single highly selective liberal arts college in the late 1970s. It was found that women took fewer science and mathematics courses than men but performed at a higher level both in high school and college. It was also found that students took fewer mathematics and science courses in college than in high school and that college performance and participation were related to performance and participation in high school.     

Images of mathematics held by university teachers of mathematical sciences

For some time now mathematics educators have been studying elementary and secondary school teachers' views of mathematics. A knowledge of university teachers' views of this discipline can provide a useful background to these research endeavours. As part of a national survey of men and women teachers of mathematical sciences in Canadian universities, I included a question concerning the definition of mathematics. In this article I present the themes emerging from a content analysis of the responses obtained and discuss them in relation to research on school teachers' perception of mathematics. I also report the results concerning the university teachers answers to a second question relevant to the image of mathematics, namely identifying up to ten books which, in their opinion, have had the most influence on the development of mathematics.     

Table of Contents

Foreword Introduction and Purpose Who Are Deans and What Do They Do? Who Are They? What Do They Do? What Challenges Do Deans Face? Fiscal Constraints and Demands for Accountability Demands for Curricular Relevance Technical Advancements and Educational Delivery Systems The Diversity of Shifting Demographics Faculty-Student-System Incongruence Issues of Balance What Strategies Can Deans Use to Meet These Challenges? An Overarching Strategy Specific Strategies What Can Universities Do to Help Deans Become More Effective? Selection of Deans Socialization of Deans Leadership Development for Deans Evaluation Rethinking the Position One Final Thought Appendix A Diversity Resources for Deans Appendix B Law Resources for Deans Appendix C Technology Resources for Deans Appendix D Finance and Budgeting Resources for Deans Appendix E Survival Tools for Deans Seeking Balance Appendix F Ideas for Deans on Organizational Integrity Appendix G A Survival Reference Library for Deans Notes References