Francisco Pizarro Flores
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Mentor(s): Vilma Mesa
Research Mentor School/College/Department: School of Education / Education
Program:
Authors: Francisco Pizarro, Kenny Deng, Vilma Mesa
Session: Session 2: 10:00 am – 10:50 am
Poster: 97
Abstract
There have been many studies surrounding the learning and teaching of mathematics in an undergraduate setting, but less so in linear algebra courses. This often means that there are fewer resources dedicated to teaching these students and altering the curriculum to improve upon teaching in these environments. UTMOST: Undergraduate Teaching in Mathematics with Open Software and Textbooks, is a project that aims to contribute to the understanding of interactive and accessible textbooks that will improve teaching and learning. In UTMOST 3.0, we work with previously collected data to draw conclusions about student understanding of certain mathematical concepts. We have collected standard exam results from 23 linear algebra courses in different institutions around the United States (for a total of 634 students). on spans. We will use the data from three different instructors (n=95 students) to develop a coding strategy for student responses to questions directly related to spans on the final exams of the course to reveal student conceptions of spans and possibly other topics. Upon initial analysis, there appear to be many conceptions and misconceptions surrounding the understanding of spans in community college classrooms. Students often use ideas of RREF, rank, column space, dimensions, and linear independence to justify certain concussions. The most common mis justifications are related to the number of columns and rows. The larger implications of our research pertain to improvements to how linear algebra courses are taught and improvements to the open-source textbooks they use to teach. Teachers could modify their curricula to address the knowledge deficit and misconceptions identified through this research. This qualitative study grows the minimal body of research on mathematical teaching in a community college setting.
