Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education
Advisor
Gary Reglin
Committee Member
Marian Torrence
Committee Member
Ronald P. Kern
Keywords
achievement, alpha significance level, college mathematics, computer aided instruction, control group, data collection instruments, evaluation committee, evaluation interview instrument, experimental group, grade retention, introductory mathematics course, mathematical model, mathematics skills, mathematics skills evaluation test, participant achievement, perceptions, posttest, pretest, remedial mathematics, remediation, research questions, retention, scores, statistical significance, student participants, supplemental tool, validity evaluation
Abstract
The applied dissertation was designed to determine if a supplemental tool would improve the achievement of students enrolled in an introductory college mathematics course. The study was conducted to determine if students who were exposed to a mathematical model would learn information at a more significant level than those students who did not use the mathematical model.
Four research questions were investigated. During this study, 53 students were members of the experimental group and control groups. Eight individuals were part of the evaluation committee. The experimental group consisted of 26 participants who were exposed to the mathematical model, and the remaining 27 participants were not exposed to the model. The researcher used two data-collection instruments. One data-collection instrument was the evaluation interview instrument, which was used by the evaluation committee to access the mathematical model. The second data-collection instrument was a mathematics skills evaluation test, which was administered to the student participants as both a pretest and a posttest.
Three of the four research questions were tested at an alpha significance level of .05. Findings for Research Question 1 showed that the participants in the experimental group experienced a significant increase from pretest to posttest. Findings for Research Question 2 showed that the control group experienced a significant increase from pretest to posttest. Findings for Research Question 3 showed that, although the experimental group experienced a higher increase in scores than did the control group, the increase was not statistically significant. The results for Research Question 4 revealed the evaluation committee’s perceptions of the mathematical model that was used in the study. The researcher provided recommendations for future researchers wishing to extend the dissertation study. Limitations that possibly affected the internal validity of the study were discussed, as well as the measures that were taken to minimize the effects of these limitations.