SIGMA on RUME Pre-Conference Working Groups
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Research on Community College Mathematics
Fire Circles on Undergraduate Mathematics Education Research with Indigenous Communities
Teaching Geometry for Secondary Teachers
Research on College Mathematics Instructor Professional Growth
Research on Technology in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
Understanding the Usage of Bioscience in Mathematics Teaching
Statistics and Data Science Education
Research on Community College Mathematics
| Organizers: Branwen Schaub (Wenatchee Valley College); Claire Wladis (City University of New York); Katie Bjorkman (Richard Bland College of William & Mary) | Contact: bschaub@wvc.edu |
| This working group brings together researchers who focus on teaching and learning in community college mathematics. Supported through past working group sessions at RUME (2012-2020, 2022) and committee work within AMATYC (2009-2019), a growing group of faculty (6 faculty in 2009 to more than 40 to-date), has been collaborating to advance a national agenda and create a network of community college mathematics education research. The work from the 2019 conference devoted part of the time to brainstorming and editing at the 2020 conference for Spring 2020 final submissions. This work resulted in at least 18 submission ideas for a special issue of the MathAMATYC educator with and the publication of 8 research articles. Multiple collaborative research proposals were envisioned and submitted for funding after the 2020 conference. As a result of the 2022 conference, a subgroup of 22 working group members have also been meeting regularly to discuss how definitions of “college level” mathematics could be reconceptualized. We propose to leverage the RUME working group session to continue to grow the network of community college mathematics faculty, university research faculty, and doctoral students working to develop and disseminate research on and with community college mathematics stakeholders. We welcome new working group participants who are seeking to conduct or are conducting research in mathematics teaching and learning within community colleges and are interested in advancing this agenda through collaborative or coordinated research projects and focused plans for the dissemination of research. The focus for 2023 is to collaborate on: (1) specific advocacy plans for community college mathematics research, discussing unique issues surrounding community college mathematics research; (2) developing specific mentoring, networking, or other support plans for community college mathematics education researchers, practitioners and doctoral students with a research interest in community colleges; and (3) further develop our interprofessional organization collaborations for future conferences and special publications focused on community college mathematics research. |
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Fire Circles on Undergraduate Mathematics Education Research with Indigenous Communities
| Organizers: Vilma Mesa (University of Michigan); Belin Tsinnajinnie (WestEd); Lisa Savcak (WestEd) | Contact: vmesa@umich.edu |
| In this working group we want to convene researchers interested in understanding the scope of research that can be pursued with Indigenous communities on aspects of mathematics teaching, learning, curriculum, and professional development. We aspire to build a network of scholars who are interested in advancing research on these areas and who are pursuing or planning to start projects with a focus on Indigenous communities in the United States, the Americas, and internationally. The working group will engage in phases of learning regarding (1) U.S. Indigenous history, epistemology, ontology, and colonizing practices that have undermined Indigenous people’s right to self-determination and (2) the power of engaging in culturally sustaining and revitalizing research practices that acknowledge Indigenous communities’ histories, epistemologies, right to self-determination, and relations to place. In the meeting we will use a Fire Circle approach, by which we affirm four commitments, Relationality, Responsibility, Respect, and Reciprocity (Brayboy & Deyhle, 2000) to our participants. In this approach we collaborate to create a list of themes that are relevant for the group and seek to support the development of shared understanding of the themes, leaving the space for sharing, reflection, and action that leads to changes in the individual and local levels. Prior to the meeting we will collect ideas that will allow us to prepare materials and organize the work during the conference. Reference: Brayboy, B. H. J., & Deyhle, D. (2000). Insider-outsider: Researchers in American Indian communities. Theory into practice, 39(3), 163-169. doi:10.1207/s15430421tip3903_7 |
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Teaching Geometry for Secondary Teachers
| Organizers: Amanda Brown (University of Michigan); Pat Herbst (University of Michigan); Carolyn Hetrick (University of Michigan) | Contact: amilewsk@umich.edu | Additional Information: https://getapencil.org/student-learning-objectives/ |
| We convene attendees who teach or do research on college geometry courses taken by secondary teachers (GeT courses, hereafter). During the first segment of the working group session, attendees will learn about an ongoing NSF-funded research and development project called GeT Support. Of particular focus, attendees will have the chance to learn more about a recent development in the project—the first public draft of a set of Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) for geometry courses. The SLOs were constructed over a two-year timeframe by an faculty online learning community made up of instructors of the undergraduate geometry course. The instructors within that learning community conceive of the SLOs as a living document—one that will change over time with input from other instructors and stakeholders. During the second segment, members of this community will share about ongoing efforts to disseminate the SLOs in order to gather feedback and wider perspectives on the SLOs. In this segment, working group participants will have time to pursue the new website which contains the text of the SLOs along with their elaborations. Working group participants will have a chance to discuss the SLOs within small groups and provide reactions to them using an online forum. These reactions will be useful in informing future revisions to the SLOs. During the third segment, participants will have the chance to learn about and shape the contents of one of the sections in an upcoming edited book focused on the teaching of college geometry. In particular, the participants will have the chance to share ideas about work that is ahead of the community related to sustaining the work of the community—including developing processes to revise the SLOs, developing materials to help support instructors in their use of the SLOs, and identifying communities and avenues with which to further disseminate about the SLOs. In the final segment, attendees will be invited to work in small groups to further explore various strategies for sustaining the work of the community. In parallel working groups, participants will discuss different kinds of scenarios related to sustainability strategies. Participants will be encouraged to identify emerging ideas that could be further developed into chapter proposals for submission in the upcoming book. During this time, editors of the book will make themselves available to provide feedback on these ideas related to ways they might fit the various sections of the book. | ||
Research on College Mathematics Instructor Professional Growth
| Organizers:Shandy Hauk (San Francisco State University); Natasha Speer (University of Maine); Kim Rogers (Bowling Green State University); Jeneva Clark (University of Tennessee) | Contact: hauk@sfsu.edu |
| This long-standing working group focuses on research on the professional development and growth of college mathematics instructors regardless of their level of experience or expertise, though many current members have a particular interest in the professional growth of novice college teachers (e.g., graduate students in their first teaching roles). The group meets online periodically throughout the year and face-to-face at the RUME conference annually. The group’s goals, historically and currently, continue to drive the focus of annual meetings. Working Group meeting time is structured to bring in researchers new to the field through a variety of scholarly activities: exploring and discussing literature, giving and receiving feedback on research projects that are in progress, brainstorming potential collaborations and mentoring relationships for both long- and short-term studies, and continuing to discuss issues central to the field and ways to address them. Participants in this group include researchers in all areas of the professional preparation, induction, and development of college mathematics instructors, from across institutional types. Research areas include, but are not limited to, factors that shape instructional practices, experiences of instructors as they attend to student thinking in their instruction, and changes in instructional orientations, planning, and practices as teaching experiences accumulate. Researchers need not present their own work to participate in the group and provide feedback to others. Dissemination from the group is broad, from publications aimed at education research audiences to practice-oriented college mathematics instructor and mathematician communities. What drives the working group is meeting the needs of its members. Working group facilitators have been involved in various related groups (e.g., MAA-AMS Joint Committee on Teaching Assistants and Part-Time Faculty, MAA Committee on Professional Development), have conducted grant-funded research in the area, and have presented regularly at the Conference on RUME . |
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Education Research at the Interface of Mathematics and Science: Limits and Infinitesimals across the STEM Disciplines
| Organizers: Steven Jones (BYU); Jeff Rabin (UCSD) | Contact: sjones@mathed.byu.edu | Additional Information: Math/Science working group google drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ecP2XwRgjm2C_M8PFm2-J5-Z0zMAS_8i?usp=sharing |
| The working group Education Research at the Interface of Mathematics and Science has been a useful, productive, and ongoing part of RUME for a decade. This year’s working group will address a topic of increasing importance for the calculus series, and for the science courses that depend on calculus: limits and infinitesimals. Many researchers have identified infinitesimal reasoning as particularly useful and powerful for understanding the key derivative and integral concepts across a wide range of STEM fields. Yet, in light of these findings, there are crucial questions that need to be examined regarding first-year calculus, and the subsequent math and science coursework that depend on it: (1) What role should limits and infinitesimals each play? (2) Should calculus concepts be founded on limits, with infinitesimals as an important reasoning tool, or should they be founded on infinitesimals directly? (3) How might an infinitesimals-based calculus class “communicate” with other limits-based courses? (4) How do science disciplines use limits as a specific construct versus infinitesimals as a specific construct? (5) What does science coursework need from calculus instruction in terms of limit versus infinitesimal reasoning? For this working group, we invite RUME participants from both mathematics and science education to share their knowledge and experience in discussing these questions from a variety of perspectives. We intend to have different STEM disciplines describe how limits and infinitesimals each individually appear in science curriculum, and we will have different mathematics educators describe distinct possible approaches to using limits and infinitesimals in their calculus classes. We will have substantial time devoted to small-group and whole-group discussions around these questions in light of the presented information. We also hope to identify future work that could examine the process of using, or the effects of using, limits-based or infinitesimals-based approaches. | ||
Research on Technology in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
| Organizers: Darryl Chamberlain (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University -- Worldwide); Zackery Reed (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University -- Worldwide); Karen Keene (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University -- Worldwide) | Contact: Darryl.Chamberlain@erau.edu |
| In this new working group, participants will work with colleagues across RUME (Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education) to learn about what research has been published around the use of technology in undergraduate mathematics teaching and learning. For this group, the term technology will be used broadly to mean any tools that are connected to computers and calculators. Specific breakdowns into categories may include online synchronous teaching and learning, online asynchronous teaching and learning, digital tools for mathematical student learning in general (including in-person teaching), using computer programming for mathematical learning, using technology in the social context of learning (e.g., digital didactic objects), technology in statistics and data science education, and other categories that might emerge as the working group comes together. Participants may bring their own ideas and proposals for research in technology to share and discuss. Graduate students and early researchers are encouraged to participate. The results of the working group will include ongoing collaborations among the participants, plans for addressing gaps in the research, and disseminating to researchers and practitioners what work has been published and what is to come. | |
Understanding the Usage of Bioscience in Mathematics Teaching
| Organizers:Alys Hugo (Everett Community College, Quantitative Biology at Community Colleges); Jillian Miller (Roane State Community College, Quantitative Biology at Community Colleges) |
Contact: ahugo@everettcc.edu | Additional Information: The working group will use the QUBES platform to organize our work. To join the group on QUBES, you must first create a QUBES account at qubeshub.org/register/. Once you have verified your account, click “Request to Join Group” on the Working Group homepage: https://qubeshub.org/community/groups/rume2023 (green button on the upper left, under the group logo). |
| Even though biology majors are typically required to take precalculus and calculus, biology is an often overlooked and under-utilized source of applications in math courses. Student engagement in mathematics is linked to their perceptions of the relevance of the material Furthermore, interdisciplinary experiences enable transference of skills and knowledge from one domain to another (e.g., quantitative skills to foundational biology courses), increasing the likelihood of success in those courses. The reasons biology faculty cite for minimizing the use of mathematics in their courses is well-researched and include lack of pedagogical content knowledge, feelings of underpreparedness for teaching interdisciplinary curricula effectively , and varied levels of preparation among students. However, measuring the extent to which math faculty are incorporating life science examples into their curriculum and identifying the barriers to using such examples is a vital first step toward improving student engagement and success. This working group aims to mirror the research done with biology faculty by finding, modifying, and/or developing and administering a survey instrument to assess the usage of biology applications in undergraduate mathematics classrooms and understand the obstacles to their use. | ||
Statistics and Data Science Education
| Organizers: Neil Hatfield (Penn State); Kristen E. Roland (Appalachian State); Sheri Johnson (Upper School Faculty, The Mount Vernon School) | Contact: neil.hatfield@psu.edu |
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This working group solicits individuals interested in learning about and pursuing research on the teaching and learning of undergraduate statistics and data science. This includes research interests pertaining to, but not limited to, the theoretical analysis and/or empirical investigation of introductory and advanced courses in the fields of Statistics and Data Science as well as pre-service teacher courses oriented towards these fields. Further, we encourage individuals interested in problem spaces shared between the undergraduate mathematics, statistics, and data science communities (e.g., function, probability, modeling, [science] communication including statistics/data literacy, etc.) to attend the working group. With growing enrollments in Statistics and Data Science courses and the increasing demand for a data-skilled workforce, there is a need for research into how students think and learn about concepts and practices in these fields. Often, researchers interested in these areas are isolated. This working group provides a means for those researchers interested in statistics and data science education to come together to share their knowledge and ideas, while building a lasting community dedicated to moving the research field of statistics and data science education forward. Such collaborations may inform the practices and research agendas in all communities. As this is our fourth year, we will provide updates on what individual members have been doing over the course of the past year. We will also present the current state and direction of the group’s ongoing projects. Additionally, our plan is to establish a structure for the group in terms of goals/purpose. Join us as our community grows. We are a small and supportive group and want to help anyone with an interest in statistics and data science education. |
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