Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Fern Aefsky
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
achievement tests, cooperative learning, Diagnostic Achievement Battery-3, elementary school mathematics, family involvement, fourth-grade students, manipulatives, mathematics achievement, mathematics activities, mathematics curriculum, mathematics education, mathematics instruction, mathematics newsletters, mathematics teachers, parent involvement, Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised/Normative Update, problem solving, reading comprehension, reform-based textbooks, small-group instruction, STAR Math Test, student achievement, student attitudes, writing activities in mathematics
Abstract
The problem identified for this applied dissertation was that 4th-grade students were not achieving success in mathematics. The results of 3 diagnostic and achievement tests--the STAR Math Test, the Diagnostic Achievement Battery-3, and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test- Revised/Normative Update--confirmed that the problem existed. The goal for this applied dissertation was that 4th-grade students would achieve success in mathematics.
The attempt to solve the problem involved several solution strategies. Children worked in cooperative pairs and small groups as they participated in manipulativebased mathematics lessons and problem-solving lessons. They experienced reading for understanding the mathematics lessons in their reform-based textbooks. In an attempt to involve parents in their children’s mathematics education, they received weekly problems to be completed at home, along with monthly mathematics newsletters informing parents of activities happening in the classroom, which also included problems to be solved with the family. The children had many opportunities to express their feelings about mathematics as well as describe how they discovered techniques to solve problems through writing activities in mathematics.
An analysis of test data indicated that the children achieved success in mathematics during the current school year. The successful achievement of the 4 outcomes indicated that the problem was improved through successful implementation of the solution strategies encountered in the literature.