Developmental Education Conference

Two weeks ago, I attended Houghton Miffin's "Meeting the Challenge, A Faculty Programs Conference on Developmental Education" at Disney's Coronada Springs. I attended sessions on Conceptualization in Basic Mathematics, Engaging All Students in Mathematics, and Teaching Study Skills for Mathematics. I also heard a keynote speech on Embracing the Challenge of the First Year.

In the Conceptualization in Basic Mathematics session, we examined exercises that would encourage students to apply and formulate mathematical concepts. The exercises presented were ones that asked students to determine impossible answers, to decide the operation required, and to explore the reasonableness of an answer.

In the Engaging All Students in Mathematics session, we discussed the importance of engaging all students in mathematics, and we looked at ways that we can ensure that all of our students learn mathematics.

The session on Teaching Study Skills for Mathematics was extremely informative. It focused on how math study skills can be incorporated into mathematics courses. We discussed student motivation, reading the text, completing homework, taking notes, test anxiety, and test-taking skills.

The keynote speech was given by Mary Stuart Hunter, the Director of the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina. She shared theories and research about why students have such difficult times transitioning from high school to college. She described the role faculty can play in this transitional period, and she described various programs offered by colleges and universities.

This conference was great!

A Mathematics Faculty Learning Community to Improve Student Learning Outcomes

One of the sessions that I attended at the Lilly Conference in Greensboro dealt with faculty designing a model to redesign selected freshman-level "gateway" courses in order to improve student learning and retention. The learning community was comprised of faculty from mathematics, chemistry as well as the teaching and learning center at NC A&T. The redesign not only involved a common syllabus, but also how to more actively engage the student in the learning process. Ideas concerning supplemental instruction and math workshops to replace graded homework were discussed. Dr. Dominic Clemence will be doing a Brown Bag Lecture on the concept this year.